


Future's Decision

by SarcasmRocks



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Blue Plastic Hairbrush, Drama, Drama Queen Zeus, Gabe gets what he deserves, Gen, Humor, Punching-bag Octavian, Tags to be added, The Lightning Thief, The Seven, Time Travel, reading the book
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:15:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 48,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28448286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarcasmRocks/pseuds/SarcasmRocks
Summary: What will happen when Gods from after the Second Giant War decide to send the seven and others from different points in time to before Zeus's Lightning Bolt was even stolen. What will happen if they have to read about Percy's quest in form of books, from Percy's point of view of course. Chaos ensues, what else?[Percy Jackson Reading The Books Fanfiction]
Relationships: Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase
Comments: 23
Kudos: 84





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!  
> It's my first fanfiction so it'd be nice if you could cut me some slack. Let me know about any mistakes or typos in the reviews. Constructive criticism is welcome.
> 
> A few important things:  
> I am ignoring Trials of Apollo for two reasons- 1) Jason dies (I mourned him for two weeks, even though he was my least favorite character out of the seven) 2) For the sake of my story.  
> So just imagine Leo coming back with Calypso on Festus like it happened in the book but minus Apollo and everything. And he doesn't take months to return.
> 
> Tell me what you think of the chapter. Thanks for reading!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson. It applies to all the chapters.

It was your average run of the mill day at Olympus, with Zeus and Poseidon arguing about trivial things (Air disaster are more spectacular than water disaster), Apollo and Artemis were having a very pointed conversation (If you flirt with my hunters again, I will find a way to kill you!), Aphrodite forcibly changing the relationship status of some unfortunate mortal couples (What's a relationship without some drama?), Hera and Demeter having polite chat (We need more cereal for breakfast), Hermes organizing his mails, Ares polishing his spear, and Hestia tending the flames at hearth, when a flash of light blinded them for a second.

"Ow!"

"Get off me!"

"What the Hades?!"

"Hey! Don't curse on my –Oooff!" Thud!

"Whazzup people?"

"There are more people?"

"What's going on?"

"You all are crushing me!"

"Shut up Kelp-" More thuds!

Gods watched dumbfounded as dogpile of teenagers appeared and more teens cowed them.

"Who are-" Poor Zeus was cut off in a much-undignified manner when a heavy book fell on his head.

The said book had a note attached to it which Zeus quietly read and re-read and re-read over and over again, with jaw unhinged and eyes wide.

"What is it, father?" Athena asked. Zeus wordlessly handed over the note to her.

The demigods hastily detached themselves from the pile once they realized they were in front of the gods.

"You summoned us, Lord Zeus?" A blond girl with striking grey eyes asked hesitantly.

"No…" Zeus replied, staring at the girl with spiky black hair and a blond boy with a scar near his lips with barely concealed bewilderment.

"No?" The green-eyed boy repeated.

Athena cleared her throat "Perhaps this will clear things up a little." She waved the note.

_Dear gods and demigods,_

_We, Fates, have transported few demigods from different points in time to read of what's to come. This was a decision taken and supported by the entire council in the time from where the first four demigods are._

_The future, in the form of a book, will be following quests of these demigods and most will be based on one of the demigod's thoughts. We shall send the rest of the books in a few days. You must read the entire book and cannot omit anything._

_Demigods should introduce themselves only by their name and not reveal their parentage until either book reveals it or another note appears saying you can do so. Gods shall not harm the demigods in any way, no matter the reason._

_More people may arrive during the reading._

_Fates_

"Different points in time, huh?" A boy with dark hair and eyes said sardonically.

"Yup, that explains it." The green-eyed boy agreed.

"Hold on," Grey eyed blond interrupted "If we read the books we will change the future, right? Won't that cause a paradox? How come gods agree to it? And-"

"Calm down, Annie." Spiky haired girl chuckled "You lost me after 'We will change future'."

"You are correct," The goddess of wisdom looked at the grey-eyed girl "But my future self agreed to this, I must have thought of all possibilities before agreeing to this. So you need not worry, child."

"Jeez, the girls defiantly is your daughter Athena," Apollo commented, getting a few nods of approval.

"Anyway, let's start with introductions," Hera said, eyeing the spiky-haired girl nastily while shooting worried looks towards the blond boy with a scar.

"Alright, Annabeth Chase." The blond girl said.

"Thalia. No last name." The spiky-haired girl went next.

"It's Grace." The green-eyed boy supplied for Thalia, to which he got a murderous glare. Oh, if looks could kill.

"So you were revived from your tree form in the future, were you?" King of the gods asked his daughter.

"Tree form?" A Latino looking boy exclaimed. Even the blond boy with scar looked alarmed.

"Yup, long story." Thalia replied, "I am sure it will be covered in the books."

"Nico Di Angelo." The boy with dark hair and eyes continued with the introduction.

Zeus and Poseidon narrowed their eyes at his last name.

"Percy Jackson." The green-eyed boy introduced.

'So this is Percy Jackson.' The scared boy's thoughts being mirrored by a Latino boy and a pretty girl.

"Poseidon, why does the boy look like you?" Zeus asked dangerously.

"How am I supposed to know, brother?" Poseidon answered calmly when on inside he was surprised himself- 'My son lives that long?' "Fates have told them not to reveal their parentage, have they not?"

Zeus t'ched at the weak argument. "You four were the first ones to arrive, so does that mean you all are furthest from the future?"

"Yes, it would seem so Lord Zeus," Annabeth answered.

Zeus nodded and motioned towards the blond scared boy, the hyperactive Latino, and a really pretty girl to continue the introduction. "You three were next to arrive."

"Leo Mcshizzle Bad Boy Supreme Valdez at your service." The Latino boy did a deep bow.

"Piper Mclean" The pretty girl introduced whacking Leo on the head ("Hey!").

'My daughter grows up to be a beautiful woman.' A certain goddess thinks.

"Jason Grace" The blond scared boy introduced.

"Grace? Like Thalia Grace?" Hermes leaned forward.

Luckily (for Zeus) he was saved from answering when a bright light and a girly 'Aaahheeeii' filled the room.

The next moment, there was another pile of teenagers lying on the floor yet again, and the person emitting the screech was identified as a scrawny blond boy.

"Octavian?" Percy exclaimed, eyes shining with anger and confusion "What in the name of Hades…"

"Why would gods send you of all people?" Annabeth continued, ignoring Nico's indignant 'Hey!'

Before Octavian the scrawny blond retort back, a girl with dark eyes and a braid gasped.

"Jason?!"

"Reyna! It's nice to see you again." The person in question greeted and then said with must less enthusiasm- "Octavian."

"So you are alive then." The bitter voice of Octavian the scrawny blond stated the obvious.

The two teens standing behind Reyna and Octavian, a girl with golden eyes and curly hair and a boy with a muscular build and (comparatively) babyface, were shocked to say at least. One moment they were at Camp Jupiter and next they were standing in front of their missing praetor. Not to mention their new friend was also there, standing with… with Nico?

The girl furrowed her brows. 'What is Percy doing with Nico?' But that wasn't all, by their body language, she could tell they were close. 'But that isn't possible, right? They just met earlier in the morning.' Someone clearing their throat bought the girl out of her musing.

"Fates have bought you four to the past to read about quests that will take place in the future, for us at least." King of the gods explained, albeit, in shock Romans? "You will introduce yourselves without your titles or reveling your parentage."

"Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano" The girl nodded without missing a beat. She had seen a much weirder thing. Hades, a god had just crashed their War games to give a non-confusing prophecy.

"Octavian-" Octavian the scrawny blond was cut off when a fist connected with his jaw, knocking him out instantly.

"Sorry, I just couldn't hold myself anymore," Nico said, not sounding sorry at all.

"Don't worry about it. I was thinking of doing that myself." Percy grinned, ignoring all the looks of bewilderment.

"Thinking? I was gonna do it, if Death Breath hadn't beat me to it." Thalia snorted. Annabeth just rolled her eyes, though she did look smug.

All the Romans looked at their unconscious Augur and shrugged. None of them could say he didn't deserve it. In fact, they looked pretty happy that they wouldn't have to hear his stupid and arrogant ramblings.

"Hazel Levesque." The curly-haired girl quickly introduced when everyone came to a silent agreement of ignoring what happened to Octavian the scrawny blond and the fact Nico (a.k.a. Ambassador of Pluto to Romans) was the one who did the deed.

"Frank Zhang." The final person introduced.

"Okay, so when are you from? Answer with something that won't give anything substantial about the future." Annabeth prodded.

"We just finished our War Games and Frank got claimed," Reyna said after a moment's thought. Frank and Hazel nodded, they are solemn as they remembered the predicament they received from Mars.

"Well, it's been a couple of weeks since we completed our quest," Piper said twisting a feather in her hair.

"Yup! And Supreme Commander Leo has started building his ship!" Leo mock saluted. Annabeth nodded, ignoring the fact Leo had just spoken about himself in third person.

"We are from after everything went down. I mean it, everything." Thalia said for her group, knowing but hard glint in her eyes.

Percy beside her winced. "Could you not frame it like that?"

"My bad." Thalia patted his and Annabeth's back.

"And you would be?" Reyna asked politely.

"Hmm? That's right, you weren't there for our introductions. Thalia." Thalia gave Percy a murderous look when he opened his mouth and he wisely closed it.

"Nico Di Angelo." He gave a minuscule small to Hazel.

"Percy Jackson." He grinned.

"Annabeth Chase."

"Piper McLean."

"Leo Mcshizzel Bad Boy Supreme Valdez!"

"Jason Grace. You know me." Jason joked a little.

Reyna maintained a stoic face through all their introductions, effectively hiding all her emotions, and nodded.

Gods could only watch dumbfounded as demigods conversed back and forth explaining everything to the newcomers, completely ignoring the gods. Annabeth suddenly turned towards Athena and asked her the date.

A day before the Winter solstice. Annabeth and Percy exchanged a knowing look.

"Lord Zeus, if we are going to read about future Lord Hades should be present here as well." Percy requested.

Zeus frowned, "Why-" He was quickly cut off by Poseidon.

"Brother, Hades may not be an Olympian, but he is our brother and a major god." He looked over to the other gods, daring anyone to object him. "It would only make sense for him to be here when something as important as this is going on."

Zeus grit his teeth but said, "Very well. Hermes call Hades at once, tell him what happened."

"In the meantime, Lord Zeus, may I please see the book." Annabeth wanted to confirm a few of her suspicions. Zeus wordlessly handed over the book to her.

She opened the book to find it… empty. Not a single word on any of the pages.

"Umm… Percy? Am I going blind or this book is really blank?" Percy peered over her shoulder and frowned.

"It is blank." He said "Are we supposed to write the books or something? 'Cause I'm not a good author."

"Like I'd read anything you write." Thalia snorted.

"Hey! I take offense to that."

"Like I care."

He was about to retort when Octavian the scrawny blond started to steer. Turned and glared at Nico, which looked very weird with his crazed blue eyes.

"YOU PUNCHED ME! HOW DARE YO-" He was cut off when a book fell straight (and hard by the looks of it) on his head, effectively shutting him up and knocking him out again (much to everyone's amusement).

"Jeez, I'd hate to be related to that kid," Apollo muttered. Even Reyna cracked a smile at this.

Annabeth gingerly picked up the book and flipped its cover.

"It's in Greek! That will make it easier to read. Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief" She muttered under breath and then turned towards Percy. "Looks like this book is about our quest." He just nodded.

The throne room's huge doors opened and Hades walked in along with Hermes. He froze when his eyes fell on the demigods, then he nearly had a heart attack when his eyes fell on Nico followed by a god-level heart attack when his eyes fell on Hazel.

"So it's true." He muttered softly. Though he had no idea why he would let Nico and Bianca out of the Lotus Casino. And Hazel. The daughter of his counterpart. She died years ago. How was she alive and how come she was among Greeks?

"Now then, reading the books is going to take a while," Aphrodite waved her hands and many comfy looking couches appeared. "Why don't you all get comfortable?"

"Thank you, Lady Aphrodite." Piper thanked with a smile.

"Should we wake him up?" Hazel asked looking at Octavian the scrawny blond.

"No." Percy, Jason, and Frank said in unison.

"We probably should." Annabeth sigh. "Gods must have sent him for a reason."

"I got that." Thalia grinned. She went over and zapped him with lightning, hard.

A girly shrike filled the room yet again. "WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

Thalia electrocuted him again. "Stop screaming, dammit."

Demigods were having a hard time finding sympathy for him.

Reyna told everything to him in two sentences and ordered him (with help of Piper) to shut up and sit on the couch.

"With everybody comfortable, we can finally begin," Athena said.

"I have the book. I'll start." Annabeth offered. " **Chapter one- I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher** …"


	2. I wish I Could Kill My Maths Teacher Too!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> Please review and tell me if there is anything wrong 'cause I know there are a lot of grammatical errors in the chapter. English is my second language. This story is on fanfiction. net too!
> 
> This is technically Chapter-1 because I am not considering the last chapter as a chapter, it was a prologue.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and I will not keep repeating it in all the chapters. It applies to future chapters too.
> 
> Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter - 1: I wish I could kill my maths teacher too!**

"I have the book. I'll start." Annabeth offered. " **Chapter one- I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher** …"

Annabeth paused and raised an eyebrow at Percy. Percy opened his mouth to defend himself but Fates decided that moment to send some more demigods. The light cleared to show two identical boys.

"Travis and Connor?" Percy asked surprised.

Curly brown hair, blue eyes, elfish features, and a sarcastic smile. Yup, they were Stoll Brothers alright. Two of them jumped up with an identical grin and a gleam in their eyes that just screamed _'I'm gonna drop a firecracker down your shirt so watch out'_ and bowed in unison.

"Yours truly…" Started the slightly taller one.

"Travis…" Continued the slightly shorter one.

"And Connor…" The taller one continued.

"Stoll!" Both finished in unison.

Annabeth rolled her eyes "You're Travis" she pointed towards the one who had introduced himself as Connor "and you're Connor." She pointed towards the shorter one. "Stop confusing everyone."

"How did you tell them apart?" A very confused Piper asked.

"Travis is slightly taller than Connor," Percy answered for Annabeth.

"Huh? That makes sense." Piper muttered quietly.

"So when are you from?" Jason asked warily. He definitely did not like that gleam in their eyes, it reminded him of the look on Leo's face before he pulled one of his 'epic' pranks.

"Same time as those four." Connor nodded towards Percy, Annabeth Thalia, and Nico.

"And," Stoll brothers said in unison before Travis continued "we know what's going on."

"Gods explained everything to us." Connor elaborated.

"Oh! And more people are going to keep showing up in between." Travis nodded gravely.

"Well, have a seat." Aphrodite summoned on more couch. Both of them immediately plopped down.

"Let's continue, without any interruptions this time, I hope," Athena said.

Annabeth nodded and began to read.

**Look I didn't … half-blood.**

Thalia snorted "Who does?"

**If you're … advice is**

"Fair warning, never listen to Percy's advice," Nico said seriously.

"Yes, I agree. They are always stupid and most likely to get you killed." Thalia agreed.

"Hey!" Percy grumbled, "Why does this book have to be based on my thoughts anyway?"

"Stop interrupting!" Zeus boomed "We need to finish this book."

"Lord Ju- Zeus, if I may. If Fates bought us all here specifically, doesn't that mean we all have something we can share?" Surprisingly it was Reyna who spoke up. She opened her mouth to continue but stopped when she heard a soft voice fill the room.

"I agree. Let's not stop these young demigods from voicing their thoughts." A small girl tending the hearth spoke up.

"Sister…" Zeus was left voiceless. Hestia rarely ever spoke nowadays, so her speaking up against Zeus's thoughts was surprising to say at least. "Very well."

"Please don't hesitate to speak up." Hestia smiled warmly at the demigods.

"Thank you, Lady Hestia." Percy bowed to her.

**Close this … lead a normal life.**

"Close the book! Close the book!" Leo jumped.

"Whoa, what happened Leo?" Jason asked

"I felt something stir inside of me!" Leo said dramatically. "Percy said to close the book if something stirs inside of us."

Travis and Connor snickered and said to Leo, "We're gonna be best friends."

"That isn't a piece of bad advice," Piper commented as she smacked Leo on the head.

"Did Percy just…" Thalia started.

"… give good advice." and Nico ended, both of them looking like they had been smacked between their eyes.

"That is actually good advice, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth complimented her boyfriend.

"Of course it is." Percy nodded smugly while all the gods had an unsettled look on their faces. Annabeth continued reading.

**Being a half-blood is…in painful, nasty ways.**

All the demigods winced or grimaced.

"Surely, being a demigod is not that bad?" Demeter asked downcast.

"I'm afraid it is, Lady Demeter," Percy answered softly.

Both Nico and Hazel nodded with a bitter look on their faces, something neither Frank nor Hades missed. Ruler of Underworld's heart clenched at the thought of his counterpart's daughter's death.

'But how then? How is she alive and why is Nico out of Lotus Casino?' The god of the dead mused.

'Hazel?' Frank thought worriedly.

**But if you recognize…and they'll come for you.**

This time, Leo wisely decided to keep his mouth shut.

Reyna nodded, "That is good advice."

"Hn." Octavian the scrawny blond grunted. Many sets of eyes turned towards him.

"Dude…" Travis stared at Octavian the scrawny blond.

"… you did not..." Connor continued but none of the brothers completed the sentence.

"Why are you trying to imitate the Uchihas?" Percy asked shrewdly. "You'll never be as cool as them or strong for the matter of fact."

Leo bust into maniac laughter, while all the demigods were snickering.

Poor Hazel just looked confused, 'It must be one of the modern things'.

Apollo and Hermes looked like they wanted to join in with Leo in his maniac laughter. Athena and Aphrodite looked amused while Zeus shook his head in resignation (We are never going to finish the book).

Octavian the scrawny blond just glared at everyone. Annabeth caught the look on the king of gods and continued reading.

**Don't say I …didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn me." Nico pointed out.

"Come on! You were already under attack before I could warn you!" Percy protested.

"Besides you were pretty happy back then, playing myth-" Thalia was cut off by a loud "Annabeth, read!"

Annabeth complied but not before adding "Oh, I'm sure, me falling off the cliff must have something to do with Percy not warning you too."

Athena's eyes widened but Annabeth had already started reading before she could say anything.

**My name… is Percy Jackson.**

"Really? I thought…" Travis started.

"… it was Annabeth Chase." Connor finished.

Both of them were quick to apologize at Annabeth's Do-You-Want-Me-To-Kill-You glare. All the males in the room (yes, including gods) made a mental note not to anger the blond and most definitely not have that glare directed in their direction.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a … upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes" echoed from all the demigods from Percy's timeline.

"Come on!" Percy sigh "At least one of you can be on my side." He looked at Frank and Hazel hopefully.

"Well… you are a troubled person, Percy." Hazel joked, deciding to go along with everyone. Frank grinned and said, "I agree with Hazel."

Annabeth snorted.

"What's so funny?" Octavian the scrawny blond sneered.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him, letting a tiny amount of killer intent leak towards him. Needless to say, he tried and failed to uphold his dignity when he began squirming in his place.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and continued reading.

**Yeah. You … could say that.**

Everyone laughed.

**I could start at ... life to prove it,**

"Dramatic much?" Thalia teased.

"But it's true." Percy pointed out.

**but things really started ... ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds fun!" Hazel, Annabeth, and Athena cheered.

Annabeth growled when she saw the next line. Percy not-very-discreetly scooted away from her.

**I know—it sounds like … field trips were.**

Athena gasped, looking scandalized. Both mother and daughter looked ready to flay the son of Poseidon alive.

"Umm… Annie? How about we continue reading and I will help you kill Kelp Head later?" Thalia intervened before things could escalate, saving her cousin from imminent death.

The goddess of wisdom narrowed her eyes to the nickname. She had her suspicions about the boy and it looked like she might be right after all.

And by the looks of it, she wasn't the only one. As proved by the multiple looks towards Poseidon.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hoped.**

Annabeth calmed down a bit after this and looked questionably towards her boyfriend. "Is Mr. Burner…?"

A quick nod was all the conformation Annabeth needed.

**Mr. Brunner was this … play games in class.**

**He also had this … class didn't put me to sleep.**

"You sleep in class?!" Athena looked horrified while Octavian the scrawny blond/wannabe Uchiha just tsk'ed "I wouldn't expect anything else from you."(For which he promptly got kicked by Reyna).

Athena had expected her daughter to have a similar reaction, so understandably she was surprised when instead of yelling at the green-eyed boy, her daughter just patted him on the shoulder.

"I understand." Annabeth simply said much to everyone's surprise.

Leo, who just couldn't keep quiet anymore, looked up from some sort of mini motorized chair he was making and said the first thing that came to his mind. "You slept in classes too?"

He immediately started regretting it when Annabeth's eyebrows twitched but she surprised everyone yet again.

"No, I didn't sleep in classes but I understand why someone else might." Annabeth started slowly "It was difficult for me as it is, I can only imagine what it is for someone other than..."

"A child of Athena." The goddess of wisdom guessed.

"So she is your daughter, Athena!" Apollo pumped his fist in air as he gleefully turned towards Hermes to collect his debt.

"You placed bets for this?" Frank asked a little bewildered.

"Yup." Apollo replied cheerfully as he collected 10 drachma from Hermes. "We have bets on all of you!"

Artemis mumbled something about foolish little brother.

Jason leaned over to Piper "Is it me or Annabeth seems a lot calmer and less angry?"

Piper nodded "It's probably because she's with Percy."

"Let us continue, for now, we will talk later Annabeth," Athena told her daughter.

**I hoped the trip would … wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was … I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen … I got expelled anyway.**

Everyone was silent for the count of three (Percy counted) before breaking into a laughing mess.

"Dude, you blew up your school bus?" Frank gasped out.

"How come you never told us, Percy?" The Stoll brothers somehow managed to say in unison.

"Percy, my man, please tell me we are best friends in future," Leo said after he had calmed down.

Annabeth decided to start reading before Percy could answer that. They really needed to finish the chapter, forget the whole book.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade … the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

Many cries of "No! We want more!" were heard.

"That was epic!" Hermes cried. Athena, herself smiling, nodded towards Annabeth, silently telling her to keep reading. Before Annabeth started reading, however, she saw Hermes, Apollo, and Hephaestus mumbling together something and she knew something bad was going to happen.

**This trip, I was … determined to be good.**

"Yeah, like that worked." Percy snorted.

**All the way into the city … peanut butter-and- ketchup sandwich.**

"Ew!" Aphrodite cried out.

Before the Goddess of love and beauty could get all started about ugliness and makeover, Annabeth wisely decided to continue reading.

**Grover was an easy … muscular disease in his legs.**

"That isn't exactly a very flattering description for a friend." Reyna tilted her head. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement while Percy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

Thalia zapped Percy. "G-Man deserves a better description!"

Percy jumped. "Jeez, Thalia! I was twelve. Besides the description _is_ pretty accurate."

Thalia retorted back and soon it turned into another one of their 'bickering sessions'. Annabeth sigh _'We are never going to finish the chapter.'_

Ignoring the two siblings, she continued reading.

**He walked funny, like … enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Wow." Piper deadpanned.

"Well, that's one way to blow your cover." Surprisingly, it was Dionysus (who was called to the meeting from Camp, along with Hades) who commented. A few gods looked shocked he was even paying attention.

"We'll have to do a lot of work on Grover." Travis nodded seriously.

"You bet! Rule number 206 very clearly states to never blow your cover." Connor shook his head sorrowfully.

"Also teach him how to lie while you're at it," Percy interjected.

"What?" Connor looked absolutely horrified.

"He broke rule number 254 too?" Travis asked, his expression mirroring his brothers.

"Lot of work indeed." Connor nodded gravely. Hermes was looking at his sons with pride.

"Grover's a satyr, right?" Piper asked Annabeth.

"Yeah." Annabeth nodded.

"Really? He doesn't sound like Coach Hedge." Leo said, still tinkering with the mini motorized chair.

"I think that's because Coach Hedge is unique. I don't think any other faw- satyr threatens to bash everyone's head with a club while calling them a cupcake." Jason answered Leo before turning towards Annabeth. "Does Grover call anyone cupcake?"

"No," Annabeth answered slowly. "That's only Coach Hedge. He is unique."

While the conversation regarding satyrs transpired, Romans (excluding Jason, because he had already meet Coach Hedge) were becoming extremely confused.

"Bash other people's heads?" A very confused and horrified Hazel squeaked, trying to imagine her friend Dawn the fawn trying to kill people with a club. Needless to say, she failed to do so.

"Cupcakes?" Equally confused Frank asked. He couldn't wrap his mind around the idea of any fawn calling him a 'cupcake'.

"You send fawns to keep tabs on demigods?" Reyna asked, figuring Grover was there to recruit Percy.

"They prefer satyrs but yeah. They go undercover as regular high schoolers to sniff out any demigods or monsters and alert the camp about them or sometimes they directly bring the demigod to the camp if a monster is hot on their trail." Percy explained.

"I see," Reyna said unconvinced. "And do they bring the half-blood back alive?"

"Of course they do!" Percy exclaimed. "Well, mostly." He glanced towards Thalia.

"It was my decision! And I am alive right now, aren't I?" She shrugged. "Besides, no one is perfect."

"Hn. What else can you expect from those useless fawns? They are pathetic good for nothing beggars. You Greeks are fools, entrusting such a job to those stupid creatures. And accepting an untrained demigod among your ranks? Foolish, just like your piteous fawns. Hn. They can't even-" Octavian the wannabe Uchiha stopped his rant.

The reason, whether it was from the large amount of killer intent in the air or the murderous glare directed towards him or the growling sound from Dionysus, remains unknown but the simple fact remains- Octavian the scrawny blonde had pissed off some powerful demigods and he was going to pay for it.

"If the fates hadn't specifically told not to harm the future demigods, you would be dead by now." Dionysus spat, utterly disgusted at the blonde's words.

Percy and Thalia stood up, while Nico had to restrain one seething Annabeth (which is not fun, by the way), shooting murderous glares towards The wannabe Uchiha.

"The note said gods can't harm the demigods, it said nothing about demigods hurting each other," Percy said, absolutely livid.

But before Percy or Thalia could even take two steps, Octavian was already lying flat on the floor. You'd think it was Reyna, Frank, or Jason but it was none other than Hazel Levesque. Albeit, a very wrathful Hazel Levesque.

"How dare you? I am the camp Augur!" Octavian, I would say screeched like a little girl but that would be offending to all those little girls, screamed like a banshee. "How dare y-" His words died in his throat when he sees the look on Hazel's face.

At that moment Hazel truly looked like what one would think a child of God of death would be like. _Deadly_. Hazel Levesque looked deadly.

"How dare you say all those things about fawns and satyrs?" Hazel fumed. "You have no right!" A memory of Dawn laughing with her flashed across her eyes and her anger rose. _How dare he say all those things about her friend when he doesn't know the first thing about them!_

She pulled back her hand to punch him again but a blinding light filled the room again.

A small note innocently fluttered down on the floor. Frank read it out aloud.

_Dear gods and demigods,_

_This is to emphasize that demigods cannot be harmed by either the gods or their fellow demigods._

_Killing anyone would cause a lot of complications._

_Fates_

Thalia grit her teeth, walked up to the scrawny blonde, and extended her hand. This action was met by many baffled looks.

"Thalia!" Percy sounded betrayed.

"What? That note practically said we cannot harm him." The daughter of Zeus snapped. "Intentionally" She muttered under her breath, too low for anyone but Hazel, who was standing next to Thalia, to hear.

Octavian realized she was right. That small piece of paper was the only thing keeping the gods and demigods from murdering him on the spot. He hesitantly accepted her outstretched arm (yes, he accepted help from a Greek!) as he pulled himself up.

But before he could completely gain balance, Thalia zapped him with millions of volts of thunder.

"Sorry, it was reflex." Thalia grinned. "It kinda happens to any boy who isn't Percy, Jason or Nico. It takes conscious effort not to zap any other male. Something I didn't bother with, in your case."

Octavian twitched on the ground again, gasping in pain.

"Note said we can't hurt them intentionally but it said nothing about hurting them unintentionally!" Hazel realized what Thalia was mumbling about earlier.

Gods looked flabbergasted. There was only one thought running through their minds _'What is wrong with them?'_

"That is a job well done, Thalia." Reyna smiled, not feeling even an ounce of sympathy towards her fellow comrade.

Percy whistled, Frank grinned and Jason smiled. No one in this room liked the scrawny blonde.

"Thank you, Praetor."

 _'_ _Praetor?'_ Gods were suddenly much more uneasy. _What were their future selves thinking, sending Greeks and Romans together? How are they not trying to kill each other?_ _Better yet, HOW DO THEY EVEN KNOW EACH OTHER?_

Gods had spent centuries trying to make sure the two sides stayed separate and at a safe distance.

When he first saw Jason, Zeus had suspected that the two sides might know each other but dismissed the idea almost immediately. Greeks and Romans were like fire and water, complete opposites. They can't stand in the same room without trying to kill each other, right?

But now, Praetor and Augur, not to mention the other two demigods. It was too much to just brush aside. They had to talk. And judging from the looks on other god's faces, they were probably thinking along the same lines.

While Zeus was mulling over his thoughts, demigods had resolved their fights. The end result was twelve satisfied and one very battered demigod, completely covered in bruises.

This apparently had happened when all the demigods aiming their fists for some other target had mysteriously landed on Octavian's face. Unintentional beating, as they called it.

So naturally, another note appeared from the fates, saying it was prohibited to hurt demigods mentally or physically, intentionally or unintentionally, which did put a little damper on the demigod's mood (except one).

Zeus cleared his throat to get the still bickering demigod's attention. "We need to discuss something important." His gaze fell on the group Of Roman demigods before turning sharply towards the Greeks.

Annabeth instantly understood, so did the other girls by the looks of it, and nodded "Yes, but how about we discuss that after we finish this chapter? We are not even halfway through."

The king of gods sigh but nodded, knowing she was right. They had to finish the chapter. Hades was looking at his counterpart's daughter thoughtfully.

Annabeth started reading.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing … entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Like that's gonna happen," Frank muttered. If there was anything he learned about his friend, it was that nothing normal ever happened to him.

There were a few mumbles of agreement.

**"I'm going … kill her," I mumbled.**

Thalia nodded, "Go for it."

"Aren't hunters supposed to be on the girl's side?" Nico raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah but no one hurts Grover."

Artemis narrowed her eye. The girl was a hunter? She had noticed the silver circlet on the girl's head but didn't give it much thought. But it was the mark of the first lieutenant of her hunters.

What did that mean? Did she choose two lieutenant in the future? Or did something happen to Zoe? _No_ , the goddess of the moon quickly shot down those thoughts. She would talk to the girl after this chapter.

**Grover tried … like peanut butter."**

Leo snorted, "Yeah, right!"

"In the hair?" Piper asked rhetorically.

Aphrodite's disgust for the girl returned.

**"** **That's it." I started … pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation … get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked … mess I was about to get myself into.**

"You would have hit a girl?" Artemis asked dangerously.

"Yes, I would have," Percy answered honestly. "She might be a girl but Grover is my best friend. Besides, girls can protect themselves. They are strong too." He glanced over all the girls in the room.

Many gods and goddesses beamed at the answer. Artemis was certainly surprised. He didn't say the words most would think Artemis wanted to hear, he had answered her question honestly and that might have earned him some amount of respect.

Annabeth sent him a smile before continuing on.

**Mr. Brunner led … the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, … old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that … thousand, three thousand years.**

"Probably more," Hephaestus said gruffly.

**He gathered us around … would give me the evil eye.**

Hades and Nico narrowed their eyes.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math ... math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"She sounds familiar." Hades mused. Nico nodded absently, already trying to figure out who she was.

"I don't know…" Travis started.

"But she sounds…" Connor continued.

"Kinda weird." Leo finished, looking up from his mini invention.

Everyone looked at them in horror. Stool brothers with Percy were bad enough, now Leo too? Not to mention all the mumbling earlier.

"Is she a monster?" Piper asked.

Percy nodded.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds … figured I was devil spawn.**

Thalia grinned. "Oh! But that's -"

**She would point her crooked - detention for a month.**

"You know, that sounds really familiar." Hades had a sneaky suspicion who it was and he did not like it one bit. If the boy was Poseidon's son (the boy was practically mini- Poseidon!), his brother would definitely not be happy if he sent _that_ monster.

"Detention." Percy, Leo, and Piper shuddered.

Hazel looked over towards Leo. And just like every time before, she saw Sammy instead of Leo.

 _'_ _No.'_ she told herself. _'Sammy is dead. That is Leo.'_

It didn't make forgetting Sammy easier.

**One time, after she'd made … math workbooks until midnight,**

"What?" The Stoll brothers exclaimed in unison.

"You poor soul!" Travis said dramatically, looking at Percy with awe.

"You sure had a hard life!" Connor continued the trend.

Percy snickered, "The hard part isn't even close yet."

**I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds … , and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"There he goes again." Dionysus shook his head.

"He broke the rule 368!" Leo exclaimed. The Stoll brothers nodded their heads in agreement. Everyone stared at them.

"Where do you get all that from?" Frank asked.

"Do the three of you have the same rule book or something?" Thalia asked at the same time.

"Of course we do!" Three of them said in unison.

"All pranksters have the same rule book," Hermes said proudly and then proceeded to summon a couch and sit with his sons instead of on his throne. The Stoll brothers looked equal parts surprised and happy.

Apparently, Hermes wasn't the only god who wanted to sit with their children for Apollo, Aphrodite and Hephaestus followed Hermes's example. After a brief hesitation, Athena and Hades too walked over.

Poseidon shot Percy an apologetic look. If he were to claim his son right now, his brother would blow his fuse even if he himself had already broken the oath. No, better to let the book break the news first.

**Mr. Brunner … Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit … you shut up?"**

**It came … I meant it to.**

"Of course it did." Annabeth sigh.

**The whole group … stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," … have a comment?"**

**My face … totally red.**

"Must have been a sight to see!" Thalia snickered.

**I … "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to … what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, … eating his kids, right?"**

All the older Olympians groaned.

"It had to that one!" Demeter moaned.

"Of all he could choose from!" Hera shuddered.

The elder three brothers looked plenty constipated themselves. Even Hestia shuddered once.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner … did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked … king god, and—"**

"GOD?" Zeus thundered, pun intended, down.

"Calm down, brother," Poseidon said, looking pretty disturbed himself. "I am sure he will be corrected."

**"God?" … asked.**

"See?"

**"Titan," I corrected … brothers and sisters—"**

**"Eeew!" said … girls behind me.**

Cue more shudders.

**"—and so there was … and the gods won."**

"You summed up years of war, nearly an entire era, into one sentence." Athena deadpanned, still trying to process 'big fight and the gods won' part.

Percy shrugged.

**Some snickers … the group.**

"Why?" Hazel asked, confused. "He got it right."

"Mortals are weird," Thalia stated in a matter of fact tone.

Percy had a feeling that Thalia was just rubbing the fact that they all technically still fell in the category of mortals unlike her. Partial immortality is still a form of immortality after all.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit … Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," … this matter in real life?"**

"Busted!" Leo and Stoll brothers sang together.

 **"Busted," … muttered**.

"We think like a goat!" They cried, horrified.

The rest of them snickered. Octavian the scrawny blonde wanted to comment about fawn's stupidity but had a stronger sense of self-preservation. After all, only a small piece of paper was standing between him and his death.

**"Shut up," Nancy … red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy … had radar ears.**

"Horse ears." Stoll brothers corrected.

**I thought … don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner … you lead us back outside?"**

"Happy note?" Hades deadpanned. Though he had not missed how Percy, Annabeth, and Nico had shivered at the mention of Tartarus.

**The class drifted off, … and acting like doofuses.**

"Boys are doofuses," Artemis said and Thalia nodded sagely.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner … to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"It's for your own good," Reyna said softly.

"He's right, it is important," Nico said. "Withou-"

"I know now," Percy cut off Nico. "But I didn't know back then."

"Whatever," Thalia muttered.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool … never made above a C— in my life.**

"C- ?" Athena looked horrified. "Is it really that bad for all demigods?"

All the demigods nodded solemnly. They all knew how difficult their school life was.

"Even my siblings and I have trouble with academics, mom," Annabeth asked.

**No—he didn't expect me to be … much less spell them correctly.**

"Dyslexia." Percy winced.

**I mumbled something about trying … he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably had." Nico nodded sagely.

**He told me … eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front … foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, … surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"What's got two so riled up?" Hades raised an eyebrow, looking at his brothers.

"How are we supposed to know?" Zeus replied shrewdly.

"It's in the future, it hasn't happened now." Pointed out, his tone a lot calmer and politer than his brother's.

Athena narrowed her eyes as she remembered the title of the book. Her father and uncle were fighting…? The lightning thief? Hadn't her daughter mentioned a quest with the boy? And if the boy was _his_ son, it could very well explain the tension.

**Nobody else … to notice.**

"Mist?" Piper asked.

"Mist," Thalia confirmed.

**Some of the guys were … with Lunchables crackers.**

"That's not very nice!" Frank exclaimed.

"Men," Artemis said with disdain as if the single word could explain the root of all the problems in the world. The downside was that the goddess of the moon probably believed that to be the case.

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket … Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Are you sure, that girl isn't your daughter?" Demeter turned towards Hermes.

"Definitely." Hermes said, "My children are never seen 'trying' to steal something, they just do it. They are never caught." He looked at his sons proudly.

"Like this." Travis was holding up Nico's skull ring while Connor was holding Thalia's bracelet.

"What the Hades?" Thalia exclaimed, jumping up and snatching her fashionable shield from Connor.

"Hey!" Nico protested. Whether it was for his stolen ring or Thalia cursing on his father's name again, the demigods never found out.

"It would be nice if you all would stop swearing on my name." Hades frowned.

Thalia apologized to Hades before turning back to the Stoll brothers. "How did you do it?!"

"Secrets!" They chorused mysteriously, tossing Nico his ring back.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and continued reading.

**Grover and I sat on the edge … loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention … Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. … I'm not a genius."**

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Annabeth nodded towards Percy sardonically.

Percy groaned. Thalia and Nico grinned.

**Grover didn't say … "Can I have your apple?"**

Everyone burst out laughing.

"Maybe," Thalia started, sticking up for her satyr friend. "Percy doesn't like apples so Grover took his apple so he wouldn't have to eat it." Her laughter telling her everyone that she herself didn't believe it.

"Yup!" Percy said enthusiastically, his words practically drowning in sarcasm. "That's it!"

**I didn't have much … so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of … stand that sad look she'd give me.**

All the girls coo-ed at that as Percy's face started resembling a tomato.

"Momma's boy!" Stoll brothers sang.

Percy proudly agreed to it as Thalia, Nico and Annabeth nodded along.

"You would be like that too if you ever meet her," Annabeth said with a smile. "She's really amazing!"

Athena furrowed her eyebrows, if the boy really was _his_ son, she did not like the fact they were close enough for her to meet his mother.

"She's really kind." Nico nodded. "Percy get all his good qualities from her."

"Yeah!" Thalia said enthusiastically. "She even told us all those cute baby Percy stories!" Ignoring Percy's glare and Annabeth's chuckle, she turned towards Nico. "When did you meet Ms. Jackson?"

"Well, technically it Mrs. Boflis now." Percy's correction went unheard.

"I met her on Percy's fifteenth birthday," Nico said. "That blue cake and blue ice-cream were absolutely delicious."

Annabeth nodded, "Don't forget the blue cookies!"

"Blue cookies are amazing, aren't they?" Percy brightened up at the mention of his favorite food. "Can you blame me for being addicted to them?"

"Blue?" Reyna looked confused. Hazel and Frank remembered their dinner before the war games- the blue coke.

"It will probably be explained in the books," Percy said.

Thalia, Nico, and Percy began discussing blue cookies addictions and the wonders of blue cake. Annabeth decided to continue reading.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair … making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

Leo looked down on his invention, a mini motorized and weaponized chair, and started thinking of adding a weaponized umbrella because a normal umbrella is too boring. Hephaestus looked at his son proudly before doing the same thing.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich … her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"She did what now?" Piper said, disgusted. She hated bullies just like anyone else in the room.

"I know she's a girl but she is making it really hard to stay biased," Thalia said.

"That was not very nice of her." Artemis agreed.

Aphrodite, meanwhile, was having a panic attack. _How could that girl do something like that?! I feel sorry for that satyr. Breathe! Breathe!_

Annabeth instead of fuming like everyone else continued reading because she knew Percy was going to do something. He would never let his friends be treated like that. Nico was on the same page as Annabeth.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with … spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"That's a weird way to describe someone," Reyna said. Octavian's tiny brain was still trying to process that the only thing standing between the angry demigods around him and his imminent death was a piece of paper.

Aphrodite nearly fainted. That girl needed makeover.

**I tried to stay cool. The school … went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

_'_ _A wave?'_ Athena thought suspiciously.

Hades leaned back and turned to look at one Percy Jackson. He was nearly one hundred percent sure that the boy was Poseidon's son. The looks alone were a dead giveaway.

But then again, if the boy was Poseidon's son, what did that mean for the prophecy? The boy easily looked sixteen, seventeen even. He glanced towards Athena and she seemed to be thinking the same thing.

 _Maybe, the prophecy came through. Maybe, that is why he let Nico and Bianca out of the Lotus Casino. But… where was Bianca anyway? She didn't come back with these demigods but Nico did._ Hades' musings were broken when Athena's daughter started reading.

**I don't remember touching her … screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"POSEIDON!" Zeus yelled. "YOU BROKE THE OATH!"

"So did you, brother, twice." Poseidon calmly retorted.

"Looks like I am the only one who kept the oath then," Hades said trying to make his presence known in the conversation.

"Yes, indeed," Hera said to Hades before turning to look at Poseidon and Zeus.

"So you admit the boy is your child!" Zeus cried.

"Of course I do! He _is_ my son." Poseidon rolled his eyes.

"I didn't think you'd follow in Zeus's footsteps too," Hera said to Poseidon.

Poseidon raised an eyebrow at her sister. "Well, at least, I didn't have to give my son to Amphitrite as a peace offering so she wouldn't go on a rampage, nor did I have to name my son after her favorite hero or name him her champion."

"Check that out, Uncle P doesn't like Hera either!" Thalia said excitedly as if someone told her she could zap Octavian the scrawny blonde as much as she wanted.

Annabeth snorted. "Nobody like Hera!" Jason, Piper, Leo, Stoll brothers, Hermes and Apollo nodded sagely. Wait… Hermes and Apollo?

Hazel, Frank, Reyna, and Octavian looked absolutely lost as to why and how Greeks could insult their gods like that. And the fact as to how they were still alive. Oh! That's right, a piece of paper.

"Now we know where Percy gets his sass from," Nico said.

Zeus and Hera, both of whom were about to retort to their brother, turned towards the demigods.

"How dare you disrespect me like that, you mortals?" Hera spat. "You will show me respect and-"

"Respect you?" Annabeth hissed, glaring at the goddess of marriage. "I think, I have every right to _disrespect_ you, especially after what you did to Percy and Jason!"

"That's right." Nico, Thalia, Stoll brothers agreed.

"You'll have to earn our respect, _Lady_ Hera." Percy said the word 'lady' with so much sarcasm it was practically drowning in it.

Jason, Piper, and Leo nodded along.

"Percy, wasn't Lady Juno the one to bring you to Camp Jupiter?" Reyna asked, still not getting all the hate directed towards the goddess.

"She was also the one who stole eight months of my life, all my memories, and kidnapped Jason from Camp Jupiter too," Percy replied as all the gods' jaws slacked open.

 _Since when did gods start interfering in mortal affairs?_ All the gods (and goddesses) were thinking.

"Yeah! Do you have any idea how scary Annabeth is without Percy?" Travis said, shuddering at the memory of Annabeth after Percy had first disappeared. Heck, even before Percy had arrived at camp Annabeth was much scarier.

"And do you have any idea how difficult it is to pull all the pranks without your trusted pranking partner?" Connor added on.

Hermes was beaming with pride and joy. He was probably the only father who was proud of his sons for pranking others. Though he was wondering why Luke wasn't here. Not that he didn't want the Stoll brothers to be here, Luke was older and the cabin counselor. Did something happen to him?

But apparently, Hera did not find this amusing if the dark glare was anything to say by.

Athena was also glaring at Percy as if he had just burned down her personal library. And why in the world were her daughter and that sea scum so close to each other?!

Hades would have argued and blamed his brother for breaking the oath had he not seen Nico and Hazel with his own two eyes. If he let out Nico and Bianca that has to mean everything was alright. Besides, the future demigods didn't seem too worried when they arrived so everything must have settled down in their time.

"So, now that we are all over the fact Percy is my son, let's continue with the chapter," Poseidon said cheerfully, going and sitting with demigods and few gods on the couches.

Zeus and Hera glowered at him while Hades scowled but none of them argued.

**I didn't know what they … I was in trouble again.**

"Of course you were." Hazel sigh.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor … she'd been waiting for all semester.**

"That you did do." Nico pointed out.

"You're observant." Annabeth complemented her boyfriend. Percy shot her his lopsided smile.

**"Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"You broke rule number 258!" Travis said in dismay.

"What does rule 258 say?" Frank asked.

"Never guess your punishment!" Connor answered.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"See. Even Percy agrees with us!" Stoll brothers cried.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

Dionysus nodded. That was what a protector should do.

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he … Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

All those who had experienced that glare shivered.

"Scared of a glare?" Ares taunted. "Punks."

"You wouldn't say that if you see it," Nico said.

"Actually, you wouldn't be saying anything by the end of the book," Percy smirked as he remembered Ares's betrayal and their battle.

"Why you little punk-" Ares was cut off when Annabeth started reading again.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds … impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot … my brain misinterpreting things.**

"Battle reflexes," Athena explained.

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps … but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Shouldn't Chiron go after Percy?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, what's he doing?" Poseidon asked, getting a bad feeling about it.

**I looked back up. … at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. … Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her … in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"That is never a good sign," Hermes said, the tension in the room growing with each word.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms … noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise … as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"Good." Hermes approved.

"Finally, some action!" Ares said excitedly.

**She tugged on the cuffs … get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes … It was evil.**

"Observant," Athena said under her breath, too low for anyone to hear.

**She's a teacher … going to hurt me.**

"Yeah, that would be true in most cases," Reyna said. "Except for demigods."

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

"That was the wrong thing to say." Annabeth winced as she realized what it implied for the false accusation of Percy stealing Zeus's lightning bolt.

**Thunder shook the building … I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

And just like that, all the tension in the room disappeared.

"Illegal candy?" Demeter asked confused as everyone started coming out of their serious stupor.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade.**

"You did what?" Annabeth and Athena yelled at once.

Percy winced. "I have dyslexia." He protested weakly or rather it looked weak against the two pairs of angry grey eyes glaring at him.

"But copying from the internet is cheating!" Annabeth protested but let it slide.

**Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Oh! I am going to make you read the book after this, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth chuckled darkly. Percy looked extremely nervous.

Everyone in the room scooted away from her not-so-discreetly.

Athena frowned. _There it is again! Why are they close enough to have nicknames like that?! And they act like they are best friends! What's going on?_ Goddess of wisdom thought. _We are going to have to talk after this anyways… about that cliff thing she mentioned earlier._

Poseidon also took notice of the nickname but he did not have any problems with his son being friends with a child of Athena.

The Roman demigods were thinking how Percy fell for someone so scary while the Greek demigods were thinking how much less scary Annabeth was around Percy. Needless to say, Greek demigods were very happy with the answer.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing … about to slice me to ribbons.**

Jaws dropped open.

"A fury?" Poseidon yelled in fury, turning towards Hades. "You sent a fury after my son?"

 _'_ _I thought the description sounded familiar.'_ Hades thought. He turned towards Poseidon. "I have done no such thing yet, brother."

"But you will in the future!" Poseidon argued.

"There was a good reason, dad!" Percy said, trying to calm his father down. "Besides the fact I am your son, I mean."

"Percy?" Poseidon asked, not understanding as to why his son would defend the person who tried to kill him.

"I am sure it will be explained in the books, Uncle Poseidon," Thalia said. "Besides, Percy survives."

Poseidon frowned but settled down on the couch.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner … holding a pen in his hand.**

Poseidon looked hopeful. "Is that…?"

"Yup," Percy answered the unfinished question.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged … which he always used on tournament day.**

Poseidon looked relieved.

**Mrs. Dodds spun … I almost dropped the sword.**

"Punk." Ares sneered and opened his mouth to continue but wisely closed it when he felt multiple glares.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"She's still calling you that?" Nico sweatdropped.

"She was quirky." Percy agreed.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran … I swung the sword.**

"How does swinging sword come naturally?" Leo asked.

"You know… hold a sword in your hand and take it from right to left like- swish!" Percy explained.

**The metal blade hit … made of water.**

**Hisss!**

Many jaws dropped open yet again.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle … still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

"Did you just kill a fury without any training?" Poseidon asked, very happy and impressed.

"Yeah?" Percy said- no more like asked modestly.

"Impressive." Reyna complimented, already knowing how powerful Percy was.

Frank and Hazel were awed by Percy's powers again. They had seen how he had dealt with the gorgons but killing a fury at the age of twelve without any training? That was a whole other level.

Octavian the scrawny blonde's tiny mind had just comprehended the fact that a piece of paper was keeping him from dying. And now the poor brain, working overtime, had to comprehend how an untrained demigod killed one of the most terrifying monsters in Roman/Greek mythology at the age of twelve.

Piper, Jason, and Leo were depressed to say. Not that they weren't impressed by Percy but disappointed at themselves as they remembered what had happened at the Grand Canyon.

Percy here killed a fury with no problem but they themselves had failed to kill their monster miserably. They even had a satyr with them and they were sixteen! And Piper was thinking Percy was unimpressive when she had first seen him.

Greek demigods, already knowing what had happened, were smirking and sending Octavian a smug look that said _That's-Our-Percy_. But honestly, Travis and Connor were personally wishing they could kill their maths teacher too. I mean, who likes maths?

And the gods were completely shocked.

Ares and Athena were still completely ignoring him but the other gods were looking at him with expressions warring from shock, surprise, pride, bored, and indifference.

Artemis was starting to think the boy was a little different from other males.

Annabeth decided to continue reading.

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand … lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Yes. Magic Mushrooms, that's it." Thalia deadpanned.

"Magic Mushrooms!" Stoll brothers started whispering excitedly.

"Don't get any ideas," Annabeth said warily.

"What? Of course not!" Connor said, a little too innocently to be believable. He immediately turned towards Travis and they gathered Apollo, Hermes, and Leo around and started whispering furiously.

Annabeth shook her head and started reading.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

Multiple choruses of "No" were heard.

**I went back outside … "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Poseidon asked blankly.

**I said, "Who?"**

"Like father, like son!" Apollo snickered.

**"Our teacher. Duh!" … so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Oh, Grover!" Connor cried.

"We need to do so much work on you!" Travis wailed.

"I'll help you too!" Hermes said, he was shaking his head mournfully when he heard how awful Grover was at lying.

Dionysus sigh.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. … He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"That's how it's done!" Hermes cheered.

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"That's the end of the chapter." Annabeth closed the book.

"Was that mist at the end?" Piper asked.

"Yup." Thalia answered, popping the 'p'. "It must have been Chiron."

"Who's Chiron?" Frank asked.

"Chiron is the activity director at Camp. He came undercover to watch over me after Grover warned him about my strong scent." Percy answered.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "You forgot the most important part. He trains heroes."

Zeus cleared his throat. "So I believe we have something important to talk about."

 _Oh right! The thing about Romans and Greeks._ Annabeth thought. She was definitely not looking forward to it.

Hades looked at Hazel again. He still couldn't understand how she was alive. And as to how his future self had not done anything about it… not that he minded his daughter alive.

He was planning to talk to both of them privately anyways. But that might raise some eyebrows. Oh well. He would claim them both. He hadn't technically broken the oath (not that his brother had any room to talk about that). It would be funny to see their expressions.

"So about-"

Zeus was cut off when a bright light filled the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hazel was a bit OCC but it will be explained in the upcoming chapters.
> 
> Please review and let me know what you think!
> 
> Until next time.


	3. The Talk(s)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> Word count: 6140 (Excluding A/N)

**Chapter-2 The Talk(s)**

Hazel’s first thought was- _‘How come it is so bright?’_ (Her second thought was- _‘Who is that scrawny blonde?’_ )

Frank’s first thought was- _‘Who’s on top of me?’_ (His second thought was- _‘Why is someone on top of me?!’_ )

Reyna’s first thought was- _‘Why am I in a dog pile?’_ (Her second thought was- _‘Ugh! I want to kill- er… punch Octavian.’_ )

“What the Hades!” Leo exclaimed.

“Watch it, Valdez!” Nico snapped.

“Hey! Weren’t those three sitting on couches a second ago?” Percy asked Annabeth.

“Well, there was that bright light so maybe they are from a different timeline,” Annabeth noted. “I don’t think Fates would dump them on the floor just for fun.”

“If it was Octavian then maybe…” Nico muttered, helping his sister up.

“Nico?” Hazel asked. “What’s going on?”

“I thought you, Reyna, and Coach Hedge left for Camp Half-Blood,” Frank said, getting on his feet.

“How long has it been since we left?” Nico asked.

“How long?” Reyna gave Nico a _do-you-have-amnesia_ look. “We just left!”

And gods (goddesses included), once again, watched as demigods completely ignored them and explained things to the new arrivals. In fact, they looked quite happy to ignore gods and the very important question they had just asked.

Rude.

“If we were all brought back why not Coach Hedge or Octavian?” Reyna asked.

“Hold on!” A squeaky voice interrupted. “You four aren’t from my time anymore?”

“You just figured that out?” A very unimpressed Frank sweatdropped.

“Ignore him,” Percy said. “He’s stupid.”

“How dare you insult me?” A very angry (read- scrawny) blond yelled. “I am the Augur of Camp Jupiter! Centurion of the First Cohort!”

“Did you forget all those punches already, scrawny?” Thalia said casually, cracking her knuckles in a very _non-threatening_ manner.

“Shut it you filthy Greek, you ugly Tiara-Wearing-Goth-Savage!” He immediately paled as he realized what he had said, more importantly to whom he had said that.

There was a moment of pin-drop silence.

Percy, Annabeth, and Nico were wondering how he had even completed that sentence without having a couple of million volts of electricity coursing through his body.

Travis and Connor were looked elated. The person who almost destroyed their camp had just made a big mistake that was going to cut short his life and they had the front row seats to witness the moment.

Jason was understandably angry but also knew from his encounter with his sister that she could take care of herself and so he settled for glaring at a certain person with blue eyes. Piper and Leo were thinking along the same lines.

Most of the gods were still thinking how casually the demigods were ignoring them. _Rude_.

Zeus was going to yell _‘How dare you talk to my daughter like that!’_ when he saw the wild and sadistic smile on his daughter's face and couldn’t get the words out of his mouth. It was a smile of the predator.

All the males instinctively squirmed and scooted away from her.

Hermes wished he weren’t in the same room as Thalia.

Apollo had the same feeling he used to get when he played hide-and-seek with Artemis and her hunters. Especially that one time when he had tried to kiss one of the hunters. Her sister had sported the same cruel smile. An hour later he had seen that look, the god of the sun was riddled with arrows, his chariot completely wrecked and all his music instruments broken.

But that was back when both of them were younger deities and could still enjoy such simple amusements.

Ares had a sudden influx of respect for demigods who could talk to Thalia without stuttering or shaking in fear all the time.

Dionysus was hiding behind his magazine trying to block the killer intent with the book.

Hephaestus abandoned his project of weaponized wheelchair and started thinking of making a device that could block the killer intent a certain girl was radiating.

Poseidon and Hades looked at their niece warily.

But none of them were as bad as the person the look was directed towards. Octavian was quaking in his boots, fumbling with a piece of paper.

“Care to say that again?” Thalia said, her voice cold as ice and her face promising pain.

“Y-you can’t h-hurt me.” The person in question clutched a piece of paper like it was his lifeline, which it probably was. “Fates have forbidden hurting demigods.”

“Exactly.” Thalia began, her predatory smile widening and hands shooting occasional sparks. “Demigods. You aren’t a demigod, just a descent on one.”

Octavian, now pale beyond comparison, looked up at the ceiling, wishing with all his heart that a note would appear to save him once again. Unfortunately for Octavian, nothing of the sort happened.

He turned towards gods for help but nobody would even look at him. Honestly, they didn’t feel like crossing Thalia when she was wearing that smile.

While Octavian was busy praying to Fates, Thalia had walked to where he was sitting alone on the couch and was standing right in front of him.

“Thalia!” Annabeth exclaimed (read- forced the words out of her mouth). “Don’t kill him!”

Thalia gave a vague “I’ll try.”

Daughter of Zeus pulled back her fist, covered and surging with just enough lightning to hurt very much but not kill, and smashed it into the screaming blonds face sending him flying back. He immediately collapsed in an unconscious heap.

Artemis looked proud of her hunter.

Another moment of pin-drop silence.

Gods noticed demigods were still completely ignoring them. Rude.

“Is he dead?” Jason asked, sounding a tad bit hopeful.

“He’s alive.” Hades and Nico answered in unison, the latter sounding more disappointed than the former.

Zeus sigh and nods towards Apollo. The god of healing wasn’t so keen to heal the damage inflicted upon the scrawny blonde by his cousin but did so anyway. The scrawny blond was his descendent after all.

Apollo had guessed that a long time ago and his suspicions were confirmed when Thalia called him a decedent of a demigod.

“How did you know that, boy?” Zeus turned his gaze towards Nico.

“It’s Nico.” Nico frowned. “And know what?”

Zeus’s eye twitched. “How did you know that the augur wasn’t dead?”

Nico blinked. _How am I supposed to answer that without revealing my parentage?_

As Nico tried coming up with a lie, Percy and Leo were quite amused.

Demigods from different timelines just dropped in, their talk about the Greek/Roman situation just got delayed and Octavian just very nearly got blasted to death but the thing Zeus picks on is that Nico and Hades spoke in unison.

Piper was grateful that her boyfriend wasn’t as violent as his sister. Annabeth was grateful that Thalia didn’t kill Octavian. As Fates said, killing someone would create complications.

Stoll brothers looked like they had gotten an early Christmas present.

Frank, Hazel, and Reyna were trying to look indifferent seeing Octavian like that but their eyes shined with happiness like they wanted to do what Thalia had done themselves but one thing or another was preventing them from doing it (which kind of is true).

Nico opened his mouth to sprout something plausible but Hades interrupted him.

“He’s my son.”

Another moment of pin-drop silence.

“YOU BROKE THE OATH!” Zeus thundered, pun totally intended.

“Hazel is my daughter.” Hades continued completely ignoring Zeus. “Well, daughter of my counterpart, at least.”

To say everyone was surprised was an understatement.

“I didn’t expect you to break the oath Uncle.” Artemis broke the silence.

“But I didn’t break the oath,” Hades said calmly, while he was laughing on the inside. His brother had reacted just as he had predicted. “I am the only one who didn’t break the oath.”

“Yeah?” Zeus countered arrogantly. “Those two children say otherwise.”

“Uncle Hades didn’t break the oath,” Thalia stated.

“Yeah, Nico and Hazel were both born before he took the oath.” Percy supported his uncle.

“Nico’s over seventy years old.” Thalia smiled. “He’s an old man.”

“I’m not an old man!” Nico huffed. “I have lived for only fourteen years.”

“Lotus Hotel and Casino,” Athena said as she realized how that was possible.

“Smart as ever, Athena.” Hades complimented. “Yes, my children were born before World War [II](https://riordan.fandom.com/wiki/World_War_II). After we took the oath, I put them in Lotus Casino.”

“My sister and I stayed there for a month which actually was seventy years outside the Casino,” Nico said.

“Hades…” Zeus began dangerously but was surprisingly cut off by Poseidon.

“What does it matter now brother?” God of Oceans asked. “We both have already broken the oath, we have no right to berate him.” He paused, looking at Percy, Thalia, and Jason. “And Hades didn’t really break the oath if Nico and Hazel were born before World War [II](https://riordan.fandom.com/wiki/World_War_II).”

Hades looked at Poseidon for a long moment before saying- “I knew there was a reason I liked you better than Zeus.”

Poseidon smiled, getting the same twinkle in his eyes that Percy does when he is about to go all sassy on someone.

“Maybe it is because I am smarter and not an airhead like Miss Drama Queen- I mean O King of gods over there” He nodded sagely towards Zeus (read- Miss Drama Queen)

“POSEIDON!” Zeus picked up his master bolt. “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK ABOUT ME LIKE THAT?”

Thalia snickered. “Roasted.”

Thalia wasn’t the only one who found this funny. Everyone was laughing, some trying to hide it, some openly. Even Hades cracked a smile.

When it became apparent Zeus was going to throw his lightning bolt at Poseidon, a bright light filled the room. When the light cleared, a piece of paper was seen swaying in the air.

Zeus snatched it out of the air, still fuming, and read it.

_Dear gods and goddesses,_

_You are not allowed to kill or hurt any of the gods, goddesses, demigods, or their legacies. This includes throwing dangerous weapons around like toys because of some tantrums._

_Fates_

Zeus’s face was now red with anger.

“Hey! It didn’t say anything about demigods hurting legacies!” Thalia exclaimed.

“It didn’t.” Jason agreed cheerfully.

“Calm down, Zeus,” Poseidon said. “It was only a joke.”

The king of gods glared at Poseidon for a moment before turning to Hades.

“I don’t suppose you have more children you hid away in Lotus Casino?”

“I do actually.” Came the reply.

“You do?” This time, Poseidon looked surprised.

“Nico’s elder sister.” Hades nodded. “Bianca di Angelo.”

The mood of the demigods from after the Giant War suddenly turned gloomy, something that did not go unnoticed by the gods.

“Nico?” Hades asked.

“She died, dad.”

Hades stared at his son for a moment with a blank expression before his face turned into one of murderous rage. The shadows in the room became more pronounced.

“Who was it?” He asked. “Who killed her?”

“She died on a quest,” Percy said, his eyes glued to the floor and his expression looking absolutely miserable. “It was my fault.”

“It was not your fault, Kelp Head!” Thalia’s head shot up. “I was there and I was useless! It’s my fault.”

“It was Bianca’s choice,” Annabeth said softly trying to comfort her boyfriend and best friend. “She died a hero’s death.”

“Quest?” Hades demanded. “What happened?”

“I’m sure it will be explained in the books.” Nico sigh, already having accepted his elder sister’s fate. “Weren’t we supposed to talk about Greeks and Romans?”

Hades pursed his lips. “We will talk before we start the next chapter.” He looked at his counterpart’s daughter. “You too Hazel.”

Hazel nodded.

“I’d like to talk to you, Thalia,” Artemis said.

“Yes, Annabeth, I need to ask you a few things.” Athena looked at her daughter.

“Very well, you can all talk to demigods alone after we are done here,” Zeus said.

Annabeth sigh, “Yes, Greeks and Romans know about each other in the future and are at peace.”

“At peace?” Reyna asked. “So Romans don’t attack Camp Half-Blood then?”

“Octavian is an idiot and blows himself up.” Nico answers. “You and Frank step in and cancel the order to destroy Camp Half-Blood.”

“Frank?” Piper ask. “Isn’t Jason the praetor?”

“Jason gives me a field promotion to the rank of praetor,” Frank replies. “I became praetor just today actually.”

‘ _I give a field promotion?_ ’ Jason thinks. ‘ _But I like having the power to order Octavian to shut up._ ’

Son of Jupiter glanced at the still unconscious legacy of Apollo.

“So how do Greeks and Romans find out about each other?” Zeus presses.

“Hera kidnaps and wipes Percy and Jason’s memories before swapping them.” Annabeth jumps in, not willing to let a chance to show everyone how much she hates Hera slip away.

“We had to go a quest so Greeks would trust Jason,” Piper said.

“Percy, Frank, and I also go on a quest.” Hazel piped up.

“I see.” King of gods glanced at his wife.

“The two sides aren’t trying to kill each other?” Athena repeats Reyna’s question.

“No.” Her daughter answers.

“Do I finish making Argo [II](https://riordan.fandom.com/wiki/World_War_II)?” Leo asks, excited at the thought of finishing his ship.

“Yup.” Percy smiles.

“Awesome!” Leo flashes everyone his elfish grin.

Thalia smiles when she realizes that Nico told everyone about Octavian’s death and nobody even reacted to it.

“We will start reading the next chapter after everyone finishes talking to whomever they wanted to talk to.” Zeus sighs yet again as he dismisses everyone.

_The future sure is complicated._

** Line Break **

Hades wasn’t sure how to start a conversation with his children.

His son, he had sent a casino where the time went slowly and learned that his sister had died.

His daughter had died over seventy years ago and shouldn’t even be alive right now.

But it wasn’t as if he could just go on and ask ‘ _Why are you not dead?_ ’ or ‘ _Who let you out of the time-warping hotel casino?_ ’

Surprisingly, it was Nico who broke the silence.

“So, I’m sure you are wondering how I got out of the casino and how Hazel is alive,” Nico said.

“Yes. An explanation would be nice.” His father agreed.

“You let Bianca and me out of Lotus Casino after a couple of years from now.” Nico started. “We eventually go to Camp Half-Blood and Bianca joins Lady Artemis’s Hunt.”

“She went on a quest with others but she died just as the prophecy had predicted one of them would die in a desert.”

“Another couple of years later, Doors of Death were opened up and-”

“WHAT?!” Hades exclaimed. “Doors of Death were opened up?!”

“Yes. It’s a long and complicated story.”

“I’m sure it will be there in future books,” Hazel spoke up for the first time since the beginning of the conversation.

“Alright,” Hades said, clearly unsettled by future events.

“So anyway, Doors of Death were opened up and I went to the underworld to get Bianca out- I know please let me finish.” Nico interrupted himself as he saw the disapproving look on his father’s face.

“By the time I went to get Bianca, she had already chosen to go for rebirth.”

“But instead I found Hazel in Fields of Asphodel and brought her back instead.”

“I see.” Hades sigh.

“It wasn’t Hazel’s fault!” Nico exclaimed. “You can’t do anything to her. It was me, I brought her back to the land of the living.”

“Of course not!” Hades looked offended. “Why would I do anything to either of you? You are both my children.”

“You wouldn’t?” Nico blinked. “I thought you would be angry.”

“Yeah, me too.” Hazel agreed. “I was half expecting you to send me back to the underworld.”

“I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to.” Hades waved his hand. “You’re from a different time.”

God of Dead sounded pretty pleased at his inability to send someone back to Land of Dead or declare them dead.

“Hazel,” Hades’ voice suddenly sounded a lot more seriously. “About your curse…”

“It’s alright.” Hazel smiled. “It was just as you said, a descendant of Neptune washed away my curse.”

‘ _Descendant of Neptune…_ ’ Hades think. “Was it Jackson?”

“No. It was Frank.”

“That praetor?” Hades frowns.

“He is a son of Mars but his mother was a legacy of Neptune.”

“Well, I am glad you got rid of the curse.” Hades nodded. “But there is another important thing I need to ask you.” He looked directly towards Nico.

“What happens,” He asked. “Of the Great prophecy?”

“Oh, that.” Nico waves his hand casually as if they were not talking about the impending doom of the gods. “Percy was the child of elder gods. Luke was the hero.”

“Though, you do bribe me to kidnap Percy and try to make me the child of prophecy instead.” Nico shrugs. “Everything works out in the end.”

Nico and Hazel share a look and an understanding pass between them. With an identical gleam in their eyes, they both turn towards Hades. A gleam Hades certainly didn’t like.

“Oh! And another Great Prophecy spelling end of the world is issued right after the first Great Prophecy ends.”

Silence settles over them silence as Hades processes the information.

1…2…3…

“WHAT?!”

**_ Line Break _ **

“You wanted to talk to me, Lady Artemis?” Thalia asks politely once they were in Artemis’s temple.

“Does something happen to Zoe in the future?” _‘No sense in beating around the bush_.’ Artemis thinks.

Thalia’s eyes tighten as she thinks of the night she kicked Luke off a cliff and Zoe’s death. She was expecting the question but actually hearing it from Artemis, she couldn’t help but try to delay answering as much as possible.

“M’ Lady?” Thalia feigns confusion.

“You have the aura of a hunter and wear the circlet of the lieutenant.” Artemis curled her fingers into a fist. “Zoe is the current lieutenant and I know she would never quit the hunt.”

The goddess of the moon looks Thalia straight in the eye. “So tell me, does something happen to Zoe?”

Thalia’s throat closes up and she averts her eyes.

“Zoe… She-She dies a hero’s death.” Thalia finally manages to speak.

Artemis gasps, “W-what? How?”

She, of course, had thought of it but Thalia confirming it was like an arrow to her heart.

“She died in the same quest as Bianca. It was a quest to rescue you and Annabeth, M’ Lady. The prophecy had predicted one of the demigods or hunters would die at hands of their parent.”

“Rescue me? At hands of their parent?” Artemis demanded, her eyes glassy with unshed tears.

“I’m sure the book will explain it in detail.” Thalia’s voice thick with guilt and grief.

Even though she wanted to know everything right now, she saw the logic behind Thalia’s words and nodded.

They both digested their conversation in awkward silence.

“Zoe won’t die,” Artemis said with steely resolve. “You all are here to tell us about the future so we can change it, correct?”

“Yes.” Thalia nodded with the same resolve. “Zoe won’t die, neither will Bianca.” _Nor will Luke._

The tense atmosphere lifted and Artemis smiled at Thalia.

“But you’re still my lieutenant right now and I barely know anything about you. Tell me about yourself. How old are you?”

“Fifteen years and three hundred and sixty-four days.”

“You joined the hunt just a day before you would have turned sixteen,” Artemis notes. “So that boy, Jackson- was it? Is he the one in the prophecy?”

“Yup. Kelp head was the child of elder gods.”

“You two sound close.”

“He’s like a younger brother, like Jason. I would never like him _that_ way, even if I weren’t a hunter.” Thalia grinned, “Annie would kill me.”

“Annie?” Artemis thought back to the blond girl. “Athena’s daughter?”

Thalia nodded, “They’re together.”

The first thing Artemis felt was disappointment. The girl, even though older than her average hunters, looked like a promising candidate.

The second thing she felt was incredulousness.

“Uncle Poseidon and Athena’s children together?!”

Thalia chuckled. “Future is full of surprises.”

“Indeed.” Artemis agreed, trying to get over the fact a god and goddess who hate each other’s guts have children who end up together. “Future is full of surprises.”

Goddess of the moon had a sudden thought. “I wonder how Athena will react when she finds this out…”

**_ Line Break _ **

Annabeth, though understanding her mother’s reason, was still salty about the whole Mark of Athena thing. Especially the owl.

So when Athena led her daughter to her sacred garden and she saw the said owl relaxing on an olive branch, Annabeth wanted nothing more than to punch the stupid bird’s lights out.

Her fingers twitched to do so but the only thing holding her back was the fact she was sure that her mother would not be very happy if she punched her sacred animal. In front of her, no less.

The stupid owl must have sensed her glare because it glared right back at her.

Athena noticed the glaring contest and said, “Glaukopis, stop it! Annabeth is my daughter.”

It screeched angrily.

“Stupid bird,” Annabeth muttered.

Athena raised an eyebrow. “I take it you don’t like Glaukopis.”

“You can say that again.”

“When did you meet him?” Athena asked. “He rarely leaves the garden unless he on an errand for me.”

“Oh, I’m sure it will come up in books.” Annabeth gave Glaukopis the last glare before turning her full attention towards her mother.

“Alright then, as I said I have a few things I’d like to ask you.” If Athena was disappointed, she didn’t show it. “You mentioned something about you falling off a cliff. What happened?”

“I’m sure it will come up in books,” Annabeth smirked mentally. _Take that, mother._

Athena was too surprised to speak for a moment. Too bad, it only lasted a moment.

“Annabeth!” Goddess of wisdom exclaimed.

“Yes?”

“Don’t give me that attitude.” Athena snapped.

“What attitude?” Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

Annabeth had fought Titans, Giants, and the primordial goddess of the earth. She had traveled through Tartarus, which is basically the Greek equivalent of hell. Heck, she had come face to face with the Tartarus himself. You’d think she has enough self-confidence to talk back to her mother now. Or maybe it was just apathy and indifference.

Athena grit her teeth. “I am your mother. You will not speak to me like that.”

“My mother?” Annabeth laughed sardonically. “You sure didn’t act like my mother when you sent me to fight Arachne or when you practically disowned me.”

All of Athena’s anger suddenly evaporated, replaced by surprise.

“Arachne?” Athena’s eyes were as wide as her sacred animals. “You try to find the Parthenon?” Her voice rising in pitch with every word.

Annabeth briefly wondered what had made her lose her cool all of a sudden. She was pretty calm around her mother when they were reading. Maybe, Percy sitting beside her had something to do with it.

“I find it,” Annabeth said, her voice devoid of previous anger.

“Y-you find it?” Athena’s incredulous and amazed voice call back. “But Arachne-”

“Lots of stuff happen, mom.” Annabeth sigh. “To answer your question, I was trying to kill a manticore when it jumped off a cliff.”

“Forget that!” Athena exclaimed as she grabbed Annabeth’s shoulder. “You fought Arachne?!”

“I outwitted her,” Annabeth replies. “She’s quite vain.”

“I-I can’t believe it.” Athena shakes her head in disbelief. “I proud of you.”

“Back then, you were pretty adamant about disowning me.” Annabeth blinked. “Wait, what’s the future tense of ‘back then’?”

Athena paused for a moment, considering the question, before shaking her head and laughing. Her sudden outburst startled Annabeth. 

Athena looked at her daughter straight in the eye. “I don't care what my future self said to you. I am here now and so are you. And, Annabeth, I'm so proud of you.” Seeing Annabeth's eyes soften, she continued. “I am proud that you are my daughter. Proud that I can call myself your mother. Don’t ever let anyone say otherwise.” 

“Thank you,” Annabeth said with a tiny smile. “I needed that. Even after all the craziness ended, we never talk it out in the future.” 

Sometimes, just a simple talk is more than enough to sort out whatever problems one might be having, be it _‘You disowned me, I hate you.’_ _Or ‘You ate my blue cookies, I hate you.’_

“Of course.” Athena had truly meant every word she said. She didn't know what makes her act the way she does in the future but she did know that she could make up for it now. 

“So, you had questions for me?” 

“I do actually.” Athena looked thoughtful. “So you said you were attacking the manticore when it jumped off the cliff. Did this happen during or before the quest di Angelo’s sister went on?” 

“Before,” Annabeth confirmed. 

“The book's title- The Lightning Thief. Does it have anything to do with your quest?” Athena tilted her head. “Perhaps it was something important enough to make Zeus and Poseidon wage wars for. The Lightning…” 

The question implied was pretty clear- _Was Zeus's symbol of power stolen?_

“Yes. Zeus's Lightning Bolt was stolen.” 

Athena suddenly scowled, looking conflicted. “Annabeth what do you think of this? This time travel and reading about the future?” 

“Honestly? I don't know.” Annabeth hates not knowing things. “On one hand, we could change future and prevent so many deaths but on the other hand, if we do change the future, the future we came from and the one we are reading about would never come to be which would mean we never actually experience it or come back here and read the books in the first place. It would create a paradox!”

“Yes, unless the theory of the multiverse is true.” Athena follows Annabeth’s rant without any problem. “But even then, even if we create a better future for a parallel world, what would happen to this world? Do all the demigods just go back to their time and forget all about this? Or are you all trapped in this time forever? What butterfly effects will this meeting have?”

“Even though the Fates said the whole council agreed to this and I’m sure you must have thought of all the possibilities,” Annabeth bites her lips. “I, personally, don’t feel very reassured by it.”

“Time travel is an uncharted branch,” Athena says gravely. “It has too many variables to account for.”

Annabeth hummed in agreement. “I still don’t understand. Why did the gods take such drastic measures? And even if they did, why didn’t they talk to us about it before sending us here? Like Travis and Connor!”

“The gods wouldn’t have done something so drastic without a reason.” Athena reasoned. “Maybe there was a prophecy?”

“But even then it would make more sense if they at least told us the prophecy!” Annabeth ran her hand through her hair, a nervous habit she had picked up from Percy. “I mean, we’re the ones doing the quest, aren’t we?”

“Hermes’s kids said they talked to gods before they were sent here,” Athena notes. “Maybe, they know something about it.”

“Maybe.” Annabeth agrees. “I’ll talk to them later.”

“For now, let’s put our trust in the future’s decision.” Athena’s expression suddenly changed as she said- “Annabeth, I have one more question for you.”

Annabeth, obviously, noted the change in her mother’s voice and expression and cautiously asked, “Yeah?”

“It’s about that sea spawn.” Annabeth groaned mentally. She was really hoping to avoid this. “When we were reading the book, you two sounded close.”

“Well, he is my b-best friend.” Annabeth almost said boyfriend but thought better of it and decided to keep their relation secrete for now. At least from Athena, that is. She didn’t need her mother blowing her fuse over that for now.

“I do not approve of your relationship with him.” Athena put it bluntly.

“Oh come on!” Annabeth barely kept herself from rolling her eyes. “You don’t even know him!”

“I know his father,” Athena interjected. “And I know all his children are like him.”

This time Annabeth did roll her eyes. “I don’t know about Lord Poseidon but Percy is definitely more like his mother and his mother is the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. We’ve been friends for years now and he has saved my life more times than I can count!”

“Trouble he got you in in first place, I presume?”

“No!” Annabeth groaned. “Now, you’re being just like your future self.”

This gets to Athena.

Athena huffs, “I’m doing this for you own good.”

“I think I’ll decide what’s good for me, mother.”

“One day, you’ll regret-”

Annabeth sigh. She knew that this conversation was far from over.

**_ Line Break _ **

“So, Annabeth, and I are dating,” Percy said casually, once they were alone.

Poseidon turned towards his son and raised an eyebrow. “Athena’s daughter?”

“Yeah?” Percy asked passively. He was starting to wonder if he shouldn’t have said that. His father had taken this news quite well in the future so he had thought that he’d do the same now too.

Poseidon looked thoughtful for a moment, in which Percy felt certain he should have talked to Annabeth about it before telling anyone.

“I hope you treat her well.” He finally said.

“Huh?”

“If she’s anything like I think she is,” Poseidon nods sagely. “She must be very scary when she’s angry.”

“She is.” Percy grinned. “So you’re not mad or anything I’m dating your rivals daughter?”

He knew his father had no problem with Athena’s children but he still wanted to hear it.

“Of course not!” Poseidon laughed as he looked at his son. “Was I angry in the future?”

“No,” Percy says slowly. “Well, it’s just Athena never approved of me in the future but you didn’t mind that Annabeth was Athena’s daughter. Aren’t you two rivals and supposed to hate each other?”

“I don’t exactly hate Athena but yes, in a sense, you could say we are rivals,” Poseidon said. “And I don’t have any grudge or anything with her children. Why should I? They are their own person. I don’t have any problem with Annabeth either as long as you’re happy.” Poseidon mirrored his son’s grin. “Besides, grudges are Hades’ thing.”

“Though I do wonder, how Athena is going to react to this news.” Poseidon mused.

“Oh boy, I hope she never finds out,” Percy muttered. He certainly didn’t feel like going through all those death glares again. Not that she didn’t glare at him now.

“Percy, is Sally happy in the future?” Poseidon asked suddenly, sounding sad and almost wistful.

“She is.” Percy looks at his father from the corner of his eye. “She marries a great guy, Paul. She even started writing her novel.”

“I’m glad,” Poseidon said with a tiny smile.

“Don’t worry, you are on good terms with her.” Percy briefly wondered if the book would mention Gabe. He hoped not.

“That’s a relief,” Poseidon said in … well, relief.

Silence enveloped them until Percy suddenly asked, “Are you going to ask me about Great Prophecy?”

Poseidon surprises his son by saying- “No.”

“No?”

“No. You look older than sixteen and are still alive and happy. That means the prophecy came to pass and you won, right?”

 _The prophecy came to pass and you won._ It made all the struggle and all the deaths sound so small. Insignificant. Inconsequential. Like it didn’t matter what Percy had to go through to achieve that victory. Like it didn’t matter how many of his friends had to sacrifice themselves so that he could live.

 _Is this how gods felt_ , Percy thought bitterly. _When I summed up their war in ‘a big fight and gods won’?_

“Yeah.” His mouth moved on its own as his mind wandered elsewhere. “Yeah, we won the war.”

**_ Line Break _ **

Jason wasn’t exactly thrilled when his girlfriend’s mother dragged him along for their conversation. But he reckoned that it was better than being in a conversation with his stepmother.

“Oh, Piper dear!” Goddess of love gushed. “You look lovely!”

“Err… Thanks.” The person in question said.

“I’m so proud of you!” Aphrodite crushed Piper in a hug.

“Proud?” Piper gasped out, still in the hug. “But I didn’t even do anything.”

“Of course you did.” Aphrodite finally released her daughter. “You must have done something very important and brave if gods sent you here!”

Jason didn’t think the goddess of love even thought about anything that wasn’t related to romance or a beauty product. And still, she had hit the nail right on the head. Guess he was wrong.

“I suppose…” Piper said hesitantly.

“And you have a very cute boyfriend too!” Aphrodite beamed at the very cute boyfriend.

Jason straightened up at the sudden attention.

“Nice to meet you, Lady Aphrodite.” He said politely.

“Aww… a gentleman!” Aphrodite’s eyes glazed over with tears of happiness. “I like him already.”

“Thank you?” Jason all but asked.

“I’m so glad for both of you!” Aphrodite crushed thee couple in a rib breaking hug. “I’ll make sure to keep your love life interesting!”

Jason and Piper exchanged a look that said _Uh-Oh!_ Annabeth had told them how Piper’s mother had once said the same thing to Percy and all the drama that followed. Jason and Piper didn’t feel like experiencing the same thing first hand.

“So tell me about all the demigod couples.” Aphrodite looked like someone had given her permission to give a makeover to anyone and anything she saw fit.

“Demigod couples?” Piper asked nervously. She did not want the same terrible fate that befell Percy and Annabeth, and now Jason and herself, curse Frank and Hazel’s relation.

Though she wasn’t quite sure why her mother would ask such a question in the first place. She had never met Frank and Hazel but from the short time that she saw them together after fates brought them from a different timeline, she could tell they were dating. If she could figure that out, surely the goddess of love could too.

“Yes!” Aphrodite said in the same cheerful tone that made Jason never want to hear the word ‘love’ and ‘makeup’ again. “I already have my suspicions and I just want to confirm them.”

Piper and Jason exchanged looks again.

“Well, I don’t know about Frank and Hazel but Percy and Annabeth are a couple.” Piper finally said.

A squeal loud and sharp enough to shatter glass made Piper and Jason cover their ears.

“I knew it!” Aphrodite shrieked. “Athena’s daughter and Poseidon’s son!”

Jason winced in sympathy.

“Percy and Annabeth. Now, what would be a good ship name for them?” Aphrodite mused. “I have it! Percabeth!”

Jason and Piper sweatdropped.

“Now for Frank and Hazel.” Goddess of love tapped her chin, deep in thought. “Hrank? No. Hank? No. Frazel? Yeah!” She squealed again. “Percabeth, Frazel and,” She paused, looking at Piper and Jason. “Jasper! I ship them!”

And the goddess of beauty burst into tears.

“I’m so happyyyyy!”

Jason and Piper exchange yet another look. Jason was starting to wonder if a conversation with Hera would have been a better option after all.

**_ Line Break _ **

“This is gonna be so epic,” Travis whispered as his brother and Leo laughed manically. 

“And glittery!” Apollo’s voice sounded like he was trying to hold back his own maniac laughter.

“Hephaestus, the stuff will be ready soon, right?” Hermes asked.

“Yeah.” Hephaestus had the same gleam in his eyes that his son had.

“Frank, having you here will definitely help a lot.” Travis grinned.

“Sure thing.” Frank grinned. “It sounds fun.”

“Now, we just have to convince Percy and we will be all set.” Apollo burst into maniac laughter he had been trying to hold back. “Hahahaha!”

One by one everyone burst into the contagious maniac laughter.

* * *

**_Omake_ **

“Hey, Thalia,” Percy called out, nudging a still unconscious Octavian with his foot.

“Yeah?” Thalia looked over to her cousin.

“When did you figure out that loophole to knock Octavian out?”

“Huh? That! A while ago.”

“Then how come you didn’t tell us?!”

“’cause I wanted to knock the stuffing out of Octavian myself.”

“But…But… how could you, Thalia?” Percy wailed.

“I agree with Percy on that one, Thalia,” Nico says as Annabeth patted her boyfriend on his back.

“I’m surprised I didn’t figure it out myself.” Annabeth sigh.

“Maybe, your boyfriend is rubbing off on you, Annie,” Thalia commented.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Percy grumbled.

“It means you are stupid, Kelp Head,” Thalia explained patiently.

“Did you just indirectly call me stupid?” Annabeth fumed.

“Maybe.” The daughter of Zeus gave a nonchalant reply.

“Percy’s rubbing off on you too, Thalia,” Nico noted. “You’re getting sarcastic.”

“Deal with it,” Thalia smirked as she flipped her hair.

‘Cause Persassious ‘Persassy’ Jackson is not the only one who can be sassy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the omake at least made to smile if not laugh.
> 
> Tell me what you think of this chapter and how I can improve it.
> 
> Until next time!


	4. Can Godzilla Even Wear Socks?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> For my update schedule, it basically gonna be something like this: One chapter a month, Two chapters a month if I'm lucky and One chapter in two months if I'm unlucky. I will still keep updating this in my profile too.
> 
> Please tell me if there are any mistakes!
> 
> Word count: 8153 (excluding A/N)

**Chapter-3 Can Godzilla Even Wear Socks?**

Annabeth was so tired after her the whole _You-shouldn't-be-friends-with-sea-scum_ argument with her mother that she forgot that she had to talk to the Stoll brothers. And the worst part was that she only realized it after everyone was settled in for reading again.

 _'Guess I'll just have to talk to them later.'_ Annabeth thought as she said, "Does anyone else want to read?" _I don't think I can with all those interruptions_. She silently added.

"I'll read," Octavian said. He thought if he was the one reading, his chances of getting knocked out again would be reduced considerably.

Annabeth shrugged and passed along the book. As Octavian turned the page to the start of _Chapter-2_ , the words turned from Greek to Latin. He opened his mouth to start reading but a bright light cut him off.

A groan sounded as the light cleared off.

"Holy Hera!" A red-haired girl cursed as she rubbed her back. "I didn't see that one coming."

"Hey, Rachel." Annabeth helped the girl up. "When are you from?"

Rachel gave Athena's daughter a weird look, no doubt wondering if she should hit Annabeth with a blue plastic brush in the eye to make sure the girl in front of her was the _real_ Annabeth.

"What now?"

"What time are you from?" Annabeth elaborated patiently. "We're in past right now."

"The past." Rachel deadpanned. She was seriously considering slipping in her hairbrush ninja mode. Nailing someone in the eye would probably calm her down.

"Look around you," Annabeth advised.

The fact she was at Olympus didn't seem to faze her as she scanned the faces of all the gods, followed by demigods. But what did seem to faze her was the fact a certain blond was still alive.

Moving on instinct, she pulled out a blue plastic hairbrush from her doodle covered jeans and threw it straight at the certain blond. Before the scrawny blond had time to react, the brush hit him right in the eye making him drop the book he was holding and start rolling on the floor crying like a baby.

"Why are you alive?" Rachel asked, following her policy of _'attack first, ask later'_ , the one she had learned from her demigod friends.

Her question went unanswered since Octavian the scrawny cry-baby was still crying his head off. But Rachel did not appreciate being ignored and whipped out another blue plastic hairbrush from her seemingly endless supply of them and brandished it as a weapon.

"Now we know when she's from." Thalia was grinning like every wish she ever had was coming true. Reyna sported a smug smile, her thoughts not unlike Thalia's.

"Yes, Valdez," Nico said before Leo got the first word out of his mouth. "She's from our time."

"Rachel," Annabeth said, her mouth twitching into a smile at the sight of their savior- the blue plastic hairbrush. "We're in past. He hasn't died yet."

"You weren't kidding," Rachel muttered.

While Annabeth briefed Rachel about everything that was going on, a piece of paper fluttered down in front of Apollo. He read it out loud.

_Dear gods, goddesses, demigods, and legacies_

_You are not allowed to harm Rachel Elizabeth Dare in any manner, intentionally or unintentionally, mentally or physically. This is very strictly forbidden._

_Fates_

Gods looked down on Rachel Elizabeth Dare and wondered what was special about her that Fates sent a separate note when they had already prohibited them from harming the demigods.

As they looked down on demigods (and one crying legacy), they realized that none of the demigods had even heard what Apollo just read, they looked quite happy talking to the new arrival. They were ignoring them. Just like the last time.

Rude.

"So," Piper started, looking at the now sobbing blond. "I don't think he's going to read the chapter…"

"No kidding." Percy snorted. "RED's blue plastic brush hits can even incapacitate Titans."

"I remember that one." Annabeth grinned.

"A weaponized hairbrush," Leo muttered as his eyes lit up with excitement. "Awesome!"

Stoll brothers, while happy to see their mortal friend, were quite worried.

"Do you think she still has her future sight powers in this timeline?" Travis whispered.

"I hope not," Connor whispered back. "That could completely ruin our plans!"

"I'll read," Frank offered as he picked up the book scrawny blond had dropped and flipped the pages. "You guys finished the first chapter right?"

"Yup," Jason answered.

" **Chapter- 2 Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks Of Death**."

"What's up with the weird chapter titles?" Thalia raised an eyebrow at Percy.

"How am I supposed to know that?" Percy complained. "I didn't write the book!"

A few of the gods who paid attention to the 'three old ladies frowned.'

' _It couldn't possibly be them, could it?'_ They thought.

**I was used … weird experience,**

"Occasional?" Rachel interrupted. "Weird things happen to you all the time."

"Yeah, but," Percy said. "This was before I knew I was a demigod."

**but usually … over quickly.**

**This twenty four/seven hallucination … our maths teacher since Christmas.**

"Those students probably did think that." Rachel said.

"It's mist, right?" Hazel asked.

"Yup," Thalia answered.

"The same thing happened to Leo and me," Piper remembered. "When we remembered all the fake memories of Jason."

"Yeah," Annabeth looked at Piper. "That was mist too."

**Every so often I would … stare at me like I was psycho.**

"You are a psycho, Kelp Head," Thalia grinned.

"Hey!" Percy exclaimed.

"No denial?" Thalia teased.

Frank decided to continue reading before a full-scale war could take place between the two cousins.

**It got so I almost … had never existed.**

"Almost?" Nico asked.

**Almost.**

"It was Grover, wasn't it?" Annabeth sigh.

Frank saved Percy from answering by reading the next line.

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Why am I not surprised?"

**When I mentioned the … I knew he was lying.**

"We really need to teach him how to lie." Travis shook his head mournfully.

"Yes. You absolutely do not hesitate while lying!" Connor mirrored his brother's action.

Gods were, yet again, dumbfounded by how easily the demigods were ignoring them. First, they had ignored them when Apollo read the note from Fates, and then they started reading not even bothering to see if gods were following. Not to mention, the red-haired girl had managed to weaponize a blue plastic hairbrush. She even had an impeccable aim with that thing.

Zeus cleared his throat, trying to get demigods' attention but much to his chagrin, he was completely ignored as Frank continued to read.

**Something was going on … wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Demigod dreams." Piper winced.

**The freak weather … help my mood.**

A few of the gods raised their eyebrows.

**One night, a thunderstorm … in my dorm room.**

Many gods and demigods looked towards Zeus but none of them said anything.

**A few days later, … fifty miles from Yancy Academy.**

Poseidon shot Zeus an _'Are-You-Trying-To-Kill-My-Son?'_ look with narrowed eyes.

Zeus shot back an irritated _'How-Am-I-Supposed-To-Know?-It-Hasn't-Happened-Yet'_ look in return.

**One of the current events … squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"Jeez!" Apollo exclaimed. "What has put both of you in such a bad mood?"

"It hasn't happened yet," Zeus said.

"Maybe," Athena said. "You'd know the answer if you had any brains, Apollo."

"Hey!" Apollo frowned. "Not all of us are Know It All's who prefer reading books over their social life!"

"Athena is right," Artemis said, checking one of her silver arrows. "If you had any brains you would have figured it out by now."

Ignoring Apollo's indignant ' _Hey!_ ' Hermes said, "Wait, you two know what has Zeus and Uncle Poseidon so steamed up?"

"Yes."

"You do?" Zeus repeated.

Hades stared at his brother. He had always wondered if they were related and now he was sure they weren't. No brother of his could be so stupid and hard of hearing.

"I am pretty sure I know the reason behind all the fuss." Poseidon scratched his chin.

"Sure." Athena snorted. "You asked your son, didn't you?"

"I did not!" Poseidon said.

"He did not!" Percy said.

"I don't think Old Barnacle Beard has enough brains to figure it out on his own."

"Hey!" Poseidon exclaimed. "I take offense to that!"

"It will come up in the book anyway," Demeter said, rolling her eyes. "So stop fighting."

Everyone looked at her in shock.

 _'Did she just say a sentence without cereal and grains in it?'_ Hades thought incredulously. _'Better yet, she can think about something other than cereal?'_

Others were thinking along the same lines.

"Continue reading, sweetie." She turned towards Frank.

"Umm… sure." Frank obliged. ' _But sweetie?'_

**I started feeling cranky … irritable most of the time.**

"That's how you are most of the time." Rachel said, doodling some complex designs on her already doodle-covered jeans. "So, no difference."

"Am not!" Percy protested.

**My grades … from Ds to Fs.**

"Fs?!" Athena sounded scandalized. Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry?" Percy chuckled nervously.

Athena gave Poseidon's son a dangerous glare.

**I got into more fights with … the hallway in almost every class.**

Annabeth sigh, "Seaweed Brain."

**Finally, when our English teacher… study for spelling tests, I snapped.**

"That isn't exactly a very good thing to ask a dyslexic kid." Piper frowned.

"Yeah." Leo agreed. "Not very encouraging."

"It was a school for troubled kids." Percy pointed out. "Putting up with us was more than what most of the teachers did."

Athena frowned. ' _If teachers don't even try, how are children supposed to learn? Everyone should have access to quality education, even sea spawns.'_

Frank noticed Octavian muttering things, things he did not like. He kicked him. Octavian passed out.

**I called … an old sot.**

Dionysus looked up from his magazine.

**I wasn't even sure … but it sounded good.**

"It means old drunk." Annabeth chuckled.

Everyone burst into laughter.

"Only you, Percy!" Thalia shook her head.

Athena, apparently, did not find this funny as her frown deepened.

 _'One should never disrespect their teacher!'_ Athena thought. ' _And here I was thinking maybe that sea spawn deserved a chance!'_

**The headmaster sent my … back next year to Yancy Academy.**

"That's not surprising." Hazel laughed.

 _'That's what you get for disrespecting your teachers.'_ Athena turned up her nose at Percy.

**Fine, I told... Just fine.**

**I … homesick.**

"Anyone would be homesick if they had a mother like yours!" Thalia said.

All those who ever met Sally agreed.

"I know." Percy grinned.

**I wanted to be with my mom … his stupid poker parties.**

"Aww." All the girls cooed (goddesses included, Thalia, Annabeth, and Reyna excluded).

"I thought you liked Paul?" Rachel raised an eyebrow. "And wasn't he an English teacher at Goodge?"

"I do like Paul and he _is_ an English teacher at Goodge," Percy replied, frowning as he says the next part. "But that wasn't Paul the book is talking about."

"It isn't?"

But when Percy didn't reply, being busy glaring at the floor, Frank decided to continue reading. It would come up in the book anyway.

**And yet, there … I'd miss at Yancy.**

"Make up…" Travis started.

"Your mind…" Connor continued.

"Already!" They both finished together.

**The view of the woods … Grover, who'd been a good friend**

"That's a nice thing to say," Hazel said as Piper nodded in agreement.

Frank's lips twitched as he read the next few words, "You didn't let me finish the sentence."

**even if he was … strange.**

Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico facepalmed.

"Way to go, Jackson," Reyna said dryly.

**I worried how … next year without me.**

"He wouldn't have survived the next year without Tyson and us, would he?" Annabeth said thoughtfully.

"Neither would have Thalia." Percy nodded sagely.

Thalia rolled her eyes while Poseidon winced mentally as he imagined how his brother would react if he found out about Tyson.

**I'd miss Latin class, too … faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got … test I studied for.**

"You studied?" All the demigods except for Annabeth asked, looking at Percy with surprise.

"At least you studied something." Annabeth looked proud of her boyfriend. Percy looked proud of himself too.

 **I hadn't forgotten what … but I'd started to believe him**.

"Good," Poseidon muttered. "It will probably keep you alive." He hated the fact he had to use the word 'probably'.

"You can take something seriously?" Connor looked amazed.

"Anything other than Annabeth and blue cookies, that is." Travis looked equally amazed.

"Shut up." Percy pouted. Athena glared at Percy.

**The evening before my final … Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

Annabeth and Athena looked scandalized.

"How dare you disrespect a book like that?!" Athena turned a murderous glare towards Percy.

Annabeth crossed her arms and turned towards her boyfriend, _'Well?'_ she seemed to ask as she raised her eyebrows.

Seeing Percy was about to become _Blue-Percy-Kebab_ in the next few seconds, Frank quickly decided to continue reading.

**Words had started swimming … as if they were riding skateboards.**

Athena's glare lessened by a teeny-tiny degree. Annabeth sigh. Most of the demigods winced in empathy.

**There was no way I … between Chiron and Charon,**

"I'm sure you can remember that now," Annabeth said lightly.

"Sure." Percy agreed. "Meeting both of them helped."

"You meet Charon?" Hades looked at his brother's son sceptically.

"Yeah." Percy nodded. "He said that he wanted a pay rise."

Hades groaned.

**or Polydictes … Polydeuces.**

"And that."

**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"But those are easy," Jason said, confused.

"No, it's not." Piper countered.

"I think it's a Roman thing." Hazel twisted a lock of her hair.

"A Roman thing?" A slurred voice asked.

Everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice, who was picking himself off of the floor. The said person had a giant purple bruise around his eyes. Rachel doubted he could see anything from his right eye, it was swollen shut.

"Oh, great," Piper said, disappointment lacing her voice. "You're up again."

"Wha- what's going on?" Octavian said in a daze.

"I think he has a concussion," Travis said.

"You really did a number on him this time, Rachel," Connor said.

"A weaponized hairbrush which can give concussion?" Leo scratched his chin. "Awesome!"

"Last I saw, he was crying on the floor," Reyna said. "When did he get a concussion?"

"Oh, that?" Frank rubbed his neck sheepishly. "I might have accidentally kicked his head earlier."

Everybody stared at him, the sweet, gentle, and big cuddly teddy bear-like Frank.

"What? He was spouting some nonsense about Hazel and Percy."

The room was suddenly filled with the sound of laughter and many aww's.

"So it was an accidental kick, huh?" Jason leaned forwards, wondering if he could improve Frank's 'accidental' kick so it could 'accidentally' kill- er… knock out Octavian.

"Absolutely." Frank grinned. "I was just about to start reading again when I noticed him saying something. I went to nudge him in the head to see if he was awake but that nudge _accidentally_ turned into a kick."

A round of oh's and ah's arose.

"I see." Jason nodded as if Frank had just told him the ultimate secrete of the universe. He stood up and went over to Octavian and proceeded to kick him in the head. Hard. "Like this?"

"Yeah!" Frank nodded enthusiastically. "Just like that!"

"Ahem." Hades cleared his throat. "While this is amusing and all, can we start reading again? We have a long book ahead of us."

"And," Hera said. "Please do try to not knock out the boy throughout the book. Fates sent him here to read not sleep."

While many choruses of "Yes, Lord Hades." Were heard (much to Hades' satisfaction), Hera went completely ignored (much to the goddess' chagrin). It might just be that she told them not to hurt Octavian, which no demigod (and mortal) had any desire to follow, but Frank had a suspicion that the fact it was Hera who said this largely contributed to her words being ignored.

People love Hera just as much as they love Octavian. The only difference between them is Octavian is useless and helpless while Hera is the queen of goddesses and can turn her offender into a pile of ashes. Or send rampaging cows after them wherever they go, forcing them to run through cow poop to save their lives.

**I paced the room … around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr Brunner's … thousand-year-old eyes.**

"You're observant," Apollo noted. "You just need to be more poetic. I feel a haiku coming on-"

"NO!" Every single occupant of the room yelled at the top of their lungs.

Apollo pouted.

**I will accept … you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep … mythology book.**

"Good," Annabeth said. "Study."

"Annie, you do realize that you are talking to a book, right?" Thalia looked up from polishing her dagger.

Annabeth blushed at looked at Frank.

"Read." She ordered.

**At least I could apologize … score on his exam.**

"You could try to be a little more positive, you know?" Reyna commented.

**I didn't want to leave … thinking I hadn't tried.**

"That's better."

**I walked downstairs to the … across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the … asked a question.**

**A voice that was definitely … worried about Percy, sir.** '

**I froze.**

"You're gonna eavesdrop, aren't you?" Leo asked.

"Yup." Percy grinned. "It's kind of difficult not to when your best friend is talking about you to a teacher."

"I can vouch for that!" A voice exclaimed from Hermes' pocket.

"No! Be quiet, George!" Another voice scolded George as Hermes sigh and pulled out a cell phone from his pocket.

"Hey George, Martha!" Percy greeted.

"It's nice to see you two again." Annabeth smiled.

"Hello Percy, Annabeth!" Martha greets back as George asks, "Do you have any rats? Guinea pig would do."

"I take offence to that!" Percy looked like someone had just eaten his last blue cookie in front of him and he wasn't allowed to kill that person.

"Hold on," Piper said, squinting at the cell in Hermes' hand. "Did that antenna just speak?"

"Cool!" Leo exclaimed. "A speaking antenna! Maybe I could add it to my weaponized hairbrush…"

"I am not an antenna, Valdez! McLean!" The antenna buzzed violently as it declared- "I am George and the other antenna is Martha."

"Umm… that's what I said- an antenna."

"I just said that I am not an antenna!"

"Alright," Hermes interrupted. "That's enough, George."

"Insolent brats," George grumbled.

"Do you want me to put you in the silent mode?"

"No!" Martha quickly intervened before George could say something rude. "We just arrived and wanted to let you know-"

"Just arrived?" Hermes raised his eyebrow. "You were both in my pocket the whole time!"

Gods watched the exchange between Hermes and his cell phone with differing emotions- amusement, confusion, and annoyance.

"Yes. That's what I was saying. We-" Martha was rudely cut off by her counterpart, George. "We are from the future."

A moment of pin-drop silence resided over the room as everyone burst into questions the very next second.

"How does that even work?" Hermes looked incredulously at his companions, now in their caduceus-snake form.

"When are you from?"

"Why did the gods send you here?"

"You really are snakes!"

"If you're future, what happened to George and Martha of this time?"

The last question made everyone pause and wonder.

 _'What happened to present George and Martha? Maybe, they went to the future in place of future Martha and George. Or they went somewhere else. Maybe, both of the beings combined and only the future George and Martha remained. What butterfly effects would that cause?'_ Annabeth and Athena's brain worked overtime as they tried to figure out ins and outs of time travel.

 _'Come to think of it,'_ Reyna mused. _'The timeline Frank, Hazel and I come from won't have any of us now. Wouldn't it affect the course of war?'_

"Check your other pocket, Hermes," Martha advised. Hermes did and pulled out another cell phone. It was identical to the one the future George and Martha were in a few moments ago. The only difference being, both the snakes were snoring.

"Huh? How does this even work?" He repeated.

"They are the George and me of this time," Martha explained. "They will be in a sleep-like stasis as long as we are here."

"Is it because two identical beings cannot exist together in the same time plane?" Athena asked.

"What?" George's loud voice cut off whatever Martha was about to say. "We aren't the same! I'm older than that George and I like rats more than he does! Speaking of which, do you have any rats?"

Athena ignored George and looked at Martha. Clearly, Martha was the more levelheaded one out of the two.

"George is correct, Lady Athena," Martha said confirming what his counterpart just said. "We aren't exactly the same as present George and me. We are corresponding, to say. The same but not exactly identical."

"Is it because you have gone through different experiences that chanced you?" Annabeth asked.

"In a way, yes."

"What the Hera is going on?" Percy whispered to Thalia. The goddess named 'Hera' did not appreciate her name being used in a curse and directed a frown towards the son of Poseidon.

"I don't know," Thalia whispered back. "They lost me after 'what happened to present George and Martha'. Hold on, I'll ask Nico."

Thalia whisper asked the question to her other cousin who just gave a –"I was hoping you'd tell me that. I'll ask Reyna."

As Nico leaned over to ask Reyna the question of the hour, Annabeth finally noticed the game of Chinese whisper the demigods were playing. Being as smart as she is, Annabeth immediately understood that everything Hermes's two snakes explained to them went over their heads.

"Our life experiences and thinking pattern is what defines us. It is who we are. The more life challenges we go through, the more we mature and our thinking pattern changes. It is what we call 'growing up'." Annabeth tried to explain.

"Basically, all your thoughts, emotions, and actions summed up until this point is the present you." Annabeth, seeing their completely lost expressions, asked, "Would you say you are the same person you were five or six years ago?"

"No." A dozen demigods answered in unison.

Annabeth, looking satisfied, turned back towards George and Martha.

"So, why are present George and Martha in a stasis like that?" She asked.

"ENOUGH!" Zeus boomed before Martha could answer or George could even say 'rat'.

Everyone turned to look at the king of the gods.

"You can continue this chat of yours when we take another break. We know they are from the future and that is all we need to know right now." Zeus declared.

"Or maybe," Poseidon said casually. "You just don't understand a word of what they are saying."

"That's not it at all!" Zeus quickly said, a little too quickly. "I understood everything just fine. We are in the middle of a chapter."

"Are you sure that's what it is?" Hades picked up where Poseidon left.

Zeus sent his brothers a glare that was supposed to be intimidating but came off more as _Like-You're-Any-Better!-You-Didn't Understand-Anything-Either!_

"When are we…" Connor started.

"…taking the next break?" Travis ended.

They both needed to ask someone something.

"How about we take a lunch break after we read a few chapters?" Demeter suggested. "I'll prepare the cereal."

"Cereal for lunch?" Hazel asked confused. She looked at her boyfriend to ask if it was another 'modern' thing but Frank looked just as confused.

' _It's a Demeter thing._ ' Nico mouthed to her.

"We'll take a lunch break after a few chapters." Hera agreed.

While Annabeth and Athena were disappointed that they could not get all their questions answered right then and there, the rest of the gods and demigods were relieved that they didn't have to go through a conversation that went over their heads again.

"Alright, but before we start reading again," Athena said. "Tell us when are you from."

"Same time from where your daughter is, Lady Athena," Martha replied.

"And another question," Annabeth quickly said before Frank could start reading again. "Why did you try to stop George from-"

"Wise Girl?" Percy interrupted. "How about you continue your trivia during lunch break?"

Jason and Leo looked at Percy with newfound respect. He had the guts to interrupt Annabeth Chase mid-question and tell her to save her questions for later, stepping in her way of the quest for knowledge.

"Fine." Annabeth rolled eyes as Jason and Leo's respect for Percy shot even higher. He was probably the only mortal man alive who could say that to Annabeth and still walk away with all his limbs still attached to his body.

Athena narrowed her eyes and sent a killer glare towards Percy. The killer intent she was radiating did not go unnoticed by everyone else.

"Frank?" Percy chuckled nervously. Frank started reading before his friend could be killed by one goddess of wisdom.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, … talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**'… alone this summer,' Grover … we know for sure, and they know too-'**

**We would only make … We need the boy to mature more.'**

"We're still waiting for that," Thalia smirked.

"I'm plenty mature!" Percy protested.

"Sure."

"Hey!"

**'But he may not have … summer solstice deadline-'**

**Will have to … resolved without him, Grover.**

"As if it could." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**Let him enjoy … ignorance while he still can.'**

"Well, I didn't exactly enjoy thinking I was going crazy hallucinating about killing math teachers that didn't exist," Percy said.

"They were doing that to protect you!" and "It was mist." Came rebukes from Annabeth and Thalia respectively.

"I know!" Percy put his hands in front of him to show his surrender and protect himself from any incoming arrows or daggers alike. "I didn't mean it like that!"

**'Sir, he … her…'**

**'His imagination,' Mr Brunner … enough to convince him of that.'**

Percy wisely decided to keep his mouth shut, he was sure he was going to get some free arrow and dagger wounds he did otherwise.

**'Sir, I… I can't fail in my … know what that would mean.'**

"You didn't fail before, G-Man," Thalia spoke softly. "It was my choice."

Zeus narrowed his eyes. "Is this the satyr who was supposed to be your protector, daughter?"

"Yeah," Thalia's voice suddenly had a cold and steely edge to it. "And what of it?"

"He let you die and-"

"It was my choice!" Thalia argued back passionately. "It wasn't his fault that I insisted we bring along Annie and Luke or the fact we were being chased by hordes of monsters."

Zeus turned to glare at his brother, to which Hades replied, "It isn't my fault you broke the oath."

"Yes, but those monsters would have killed my daughter too, Uncle." Athena's voice joined the conversation.

"And my son," Hermes added.

Hades stubbornly stayed silent as he turned his nose in the air. Poseidon was in no rush to join the conversation.

"It isn't Uncle H's fault," Percy said, frowning in Zeus' direction. "You send monsters to kill me too."

"Brother…" Poseidon says dangerously. His desire to not join the conversation evaporated the moment Percy said Zeus tries to kill him.

"I haven't done it yet!"

Poseidon's eye twitched as if to say _Do-I-Look-Like-I-Care?_

"Besides, you broke the oath too!" Zeus exclaimed.

"At least I didn't break it twice!"

"Both of you broke the oath and still blame me for being bitter?"

"And here I thought this fight was about me being turned into tree and Grover," Thalia said staring at the three fighting gods.

"Yeah," Percy said. "So did I."

"Now it is an ego contest," Annabeth noted. "None of them wants to back down."

The other Olympians, rather than looking annoyed and angry, looked resigned.

"Oh, sister." Artemis sigh.

"Not this again." Apollo groaned.

"Ugh… I need to change my makeup again but their fight is ruining my mood!" Aphrodite complained.

"Hey, Hephaestus. How's that machine that might make them fight like this less often coming along?" Hermes asked.

"I'm working on it." God of blacksmiths replied.

"Does this happen often?" Hazel asked bewildered.

"I'm afraid it does," Hestia answered.

Rachel and a few demigods winced in sympathy.

"Frank," Piper said, turning towards the son of Mars. "If you start reading now, they won't have any choice but to stop and listen, right?"

Frank blinked once, considering her friend's words but decided to leave the thinking part to the daughter of Athena as he turned towards Annabeth and asked- "Right?"

"Maybe." Annabeth shrugged. "Let's try it. What's the worst that can happen?"

"They incinerate Frank for interrupting their shouting contest?" Reyna suggested with a collected smile.

"Don't say that in such a calm manner!" Frank exclaimed.

"But they can't…" Travis started.

"Incinerate any of us!" Connor ended.

"Yeah, Fates said that they can't kill any of us remember?" Rachel said, doodling some blue hairbrushes on her jeans.

 _'One of these days, that blue plastic hairbrush is going to send a note of gratitude to Rachel…'_ Percy though.

"Well, as long as they don't try to kill me," Frank said. "I guess, I'll read."

**'You haven't failed… said kindly.**

True to Piper's prediction, the three elder gods stopped shouting as soon as they heard Frank.

"You haven't," Thalia said firmly.

"This isn't over yet." Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades said in unison, glaring at each other.

**'I should have seen her … worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn-'**

"Easier said than done." Annabeth chuckled.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"NOOOO!" The Stoll brothers cried.

"No! Never give away your position!" Travis exclaimed.

"That's like rule number 13 of _Golden Set of Rules_!" Connor exclaimed.

Hermes looked at his sons proudly.

"Sorry?" Percy was too confused to say anything else.

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Good." Connor sigh in relief.

"Never leave behind evidence." Travis nodded in approval. "Rule number 108."

"Seriously," Percy stared at them. "What's up with all these rules?"

"I thought," Frank said before the Stoll brothers could answer. "You all wanted me to read."

"We do!" Hazel smiled brightly. "Keep reading and they will have no choice but to stop talking!"

Frank smiled back.

**A shadow slid across the lighted … looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"It must have been an archer's bow," Annabeth confirmed. "Chiron-"

"Chiron is an archer." Dionysus interrupted the daughter of Athena. "Of course, it was an archer's bow."

"I think," Percy said. "Chiron is the only name Mr. D can get right."

"What was that, Potato Janitor?"

"Potato… Janitor?" Percy didn't know if he should laugh or be horrified at the absurdly worn name the god of wine gave him. Others, however, had no such confusions and were laughing their heads off.

"P-p-pot-potato Jani- janitor!" Thalia was clutching her stomach and had tears running down her cheeks.

"Are you trying to get my name wrong?" Percy settled on being horrified.

"Eh?" Dionysus went back to his magazine. "What are you talking about?"

Before Percy could say something that was sure to tick off Dionysus, Frank started reading.

**I opened the nearest door … slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard … in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat … down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway … haven't been right since the winter solstice.**

**'Mine neither,' Grover … could have sworn…'**

"I'm surprised that Grover didn't smell you." Nico frowned.

"Yeah." Thalia agreed. "Children of big three have a strong scent."

"So I've heard," Annabeth muttered with a faraway look in her eyes.

"We smell like buttered bread," Percy said with a small sad smile.

Everyone stared at him as if he had just yelled _I-Hate-Blue-Cookies!_

Frank continued reading when neither of them elaborated.

**'Go back to the dorm … long day of exams tomorrow.**

All the demigods winced at the horror brought by the word 'exams'.

**'Don't remind me.'**

**The lights went … for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway … studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"That's how you do it." Connor looked proud.

"Maybe his case isn't as bad as we thought after all." Travis looked thoughtful.

"I wonder what would have happened if they had found out about Percy eavesdropping." Hazel mused.

**'Hey,' he said … ready for this test?'**

**I didn't answer.**

**'You look awful. … Is everything okay?'**

**'Just… tired.'**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression … getting ready for bed.**

"But that won't work, will it?" Nico asked. "Percy and Grover have an empathy link."

"Empathy link?" Leo asked.

"It's a special connection between a person and a satyr," Annabeth explains. "They can communicate through dreams and can feel what each other is feeling."

"They can communicate?" Piper raised an eyebrow. "That's pretty handy."

Jason imagined having an empathy link with Coach Hedge. He imagined having urges to call everyone he sees cupcakes and bash their heads with a club.

"Uh-huh." Percy agreed. "But they have to be close for the link to be formed. And if one of them dies the other will either die too or fall in a coma."

"Oh."

Jason imagined dying because Coach Hedge died doing a wrong roundhouse kick. He did not like the idea of having an empathy link with Coach Hedge.

"Now back to my question," Nico said impatiently.

"We didn't have the empathy link back then," Percy answered. "He created it when he was kidnaped by Polyphemus and needed to tell us where he was."

"Poly- who now?" Leo looked up from his weaponized hairbrush.

"Polyphemus," Percy repeated.

"Polyphemus?" Poseidon looked quite surprised.

"Yeah. Long story." Percy scratched the back of his neck. "I'm sure it will come up in the book."

Frank took this as his cue to read.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard … believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

"I'd be surprised if you did," Annabeth muttered under her breath but Percy heard her anyway. He pouted.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr Brunner were talking about me … thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Thalia snickered.

"That's all you got from that conversation?" Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't know anything about gods back then." Percy defended himself.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam**

"Three-hour?!" Almost every single demigod shrieked.

"That sounds horrible." Rachel looked at Percy with sympathy.

"Don't all of you have a standard three-hour exam too?" Piper asked.

"Well, most of us don't go to school," Nico answered.

"You don't go to school?" Athena looked like someone had put a magic lock on her library and she couldn't enter it anymore.

"Yeah," Thalia said. "Only ones here with real school experience is Percy, Annabeth, Piper, and Leo. The rest of us are either from different time periods or year rounder at Camp."

Percy subtlety motioned Frank to continue reading before Athena could launch into another _Importance-of-Education_ lecture.

**my eyes swimming with all … Mr Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping … that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**'Percy,' he said ... It's… it's for the best.'**

**His tone was kind … made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"I don't like that girl," Annabeth said shrewdly.

"Neither do I." Rachel agreed.

**I mumbled, 'Okay, sir.'**

"You can be polite?" Thalia looked surprised.

"Yeah." Percy raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"Then how come you still piss off every single god you meet?" Nico asked.

"It's a gift," Percy answered proudly.

"That it is," Thalia grinned.

"Do I even want to know?" Poseidon asked.

"Trust me," Annabeth said. "You don't."

**'I mean…' Mr Brunner wheeled his … isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.'**

"Wow." Travis deadpanned. "He's bad at this."

"We need to work with Chiron too," Connor said.

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favourite teacher … he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"I'm sure he didn't mean it like that," Poseidon said.

"I know," Percy said. "But at that time, it sounded pretty harsh."

**'Right,' I … trembling.**

**'No, no … you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-'**

**'Thanks … for reminding me.'**

**'Percy-'**

**But I … already gone.**

"He's not bad at this," Travis said. "He's awfully terrible at pep talks."

"Uh-huh." His brother agreed.

**On the last day … clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around … Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities.**

I was a nobody,

"No, you're not," Annabeth said with a knowing smile.

"Yup," Percy replied with the cheeky version of that same smile. "That you."

"How dare you call my daughter a nobody, you sea scum?!" Athena yelled.

"Calm down, mom," Annabeth rolled her eyes. "It's just an inside joke."

"Why do you have 'inside jokes' with that sea scum?" Athena demanded.

"His name is Percy and I already told you," Annabeth said. "We're friends and friends have inside jokes."

She turned towards Frank and before Athena could say anything, said- "Frank, read."

**from a family of nobodies.**

"How dare you call us nobodies, boy?" Zeus thundered.

"I didn't know about dad back then," Percy said, yelping as Thalia grabbed his ear.

"Your mom is not a nobody." She said. "She is the most amazing woman in the world. Got that?"

"Ow! I already know that, Thalia!" Percy exclaimed. "Leave my ear alone!"

Poseidon looked happy. Even his brother's daughter liked Sally.

 _'She truly is a queen among women.'_ He thought _._

**They asked me what I'd be … told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd … spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the autumn.**

Poseidon frowned. He had no idea that it was this hard for his son.

**'Oh,' one … guys said. 'That's cool.'**

**They went back … as if I'd never existed.**

"Rude," Hazel commented.

Gods stared at them. Hadn't they been doing the same thing whenever a new demigods come along? They had no room to say that!

**The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover … I didn't have to.**

**He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan … together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle … I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased.**

**But there was nobody … tease him on the Greyhound.**

"You're observant," Piper repeated what Apollo had said earlier.

**Finally I couldn't … stand it any more.**

**I said, 'Looking … Kindly Ones?'**

Thalia, Annabeth, and Rachel chuckled.

"That must have given him a heart attack!"

"No! No!" Stoll brothers wailed. "Don't say that! Now, he'll know you eavesdropped!"

**Grover nearly jumped … what do you mean?'**

**I confessed about eavesdropping … the night before the exam.**

"NO! Why did you confess?" Stoll brothers cried. "You broke rule number 15, dammit!"

**Grover's … much did you hear?'**

**'Oh… not much … summer-solstice deadline?'**

**He winced. 'Look, Percy … hallucinating about demon maths teachers…'**

**'Grover-'**

**'And I was telling … there was no such person as Mrs Dodds, and…'**

"He's a really, really bad liar," Travis said.

"His case is as severe as we had first thought," Connor said seriously.

"Yeah, we have a lot of work to do when we get back."

**'Grover … a really, really bad liar.'**

Travis and Percy high fived.

"All pranksters think alike," Connor said sagely.

**His … turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket … In case you need me this summer.'**

**The card was in fancy script … murder on my dyslexic eyes,**

"Why is it in a fancy script?" Poseidon frowned at the god of wine.

"'Cause, it's fun watching those brats try to read it with their dyslexia," Dionysus said, looking up from his magazine.

"You're supposed to be helping them, Dionysus," Athena said. "Not making their lives even more difficult."

"Eh?"

"You will change those cards to Greek as soon as you go back to camp," Zeus ordered.

Dionysus huffed, "Fine, whatever."

**but I finally …something like:**

**Grover Underwood, Keeper**

**…**

**(800)009-0009**

**'What's Half-'**

**'Don't say it aloud! … That's my, um… summer address.'**

**My heart sank … his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**'Okay … So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion.'**

**He nodded … or if you need me.'**

**'Why would I need you … harsher than I meant it too.**

"So meant it to come out harsh?" Thalia raised her eyebrow.

"What?" Percy exclaimed. "No! I didn't mean it like that."

**Grover blushed … the truth is, I- I kind of have to protect you.'**

Everyone who had met Grover before, facepalmed.

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights keeping bullies … lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

"You're a good friend." Rachel patted Percy's back.

**And here he was acting … he was the one who defended me.**

**'Grover … what exactly are you protecting me from?'**

**There was a huge grinding noise … whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

"I don't even want to imagine how that smells like," Piper said.

"Another monster?" Hazel asked.

"Nope." Percy winced as he realized what was coming next. He never told anyone about it, after all.

**The driver cursed … to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around … filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road … On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good… jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice.**

**There were … just three old ladies**

Everybody's color drained right from their face.

**sitting in rocking chairs … knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"Don't tell me…" Annabeth didn't finish the sentence but everyone understood what she was saying.

**I mean these socks … they were clearly socks.**

"Kelp Head," Thalia said, her face white as a sheet. "Are they…?"

Percy didn't answer.

"Son?" Poseidon tried.

"Yes," Percy sigh. "They are Fates."

"Well," Athena said. "The chapter's title makes sense now."

Annabeth sucked in a breath. "How come you never told me?"

"Well, back then I didn't think much of it and later I just didn't want anyone to worry."

"But-"

"I'm fine, Wise Girl."

**The lady on the right knitted one of them … the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

"Percy, please tell me you did not see them cut the string." Poseidon looked horrified.

Percy felt miserable as he remembered whose string they had cut.

"I'll let the book answer."

 _'Electric blue?'_ Nico thought.

**All three women looked ancient …bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

"It's them," Apollo muttered.

"Why would they appear in front of you?" Zeus asked.

**The weirdest thing … looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover … blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**'Grover? … Hey, man-'**

**'Tell me … They are, aren't they?'**

**'Yeah. Weird … think those socks would fit me?'**

"No time to be joking, Percy!" Annabeth scolded.

**'Not funny, … Not funny at all.'**

_'Yes,'_ Everyone in the room thought. _'Not funny at all.'_

**The old lady in the middle … huge pair of scissors- gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.**

"No, no, no." Most of the gods and demigods muttered under their breath like a mantra. Annabeth clutched Percy's hand like it was her only lifeline.

**I heard … catch his breath.**

**'We're getting on the bus … Come on.'**

**'What … thousand degrees in there.'**

"Just go with him, Kelp Head." Thalia didn't seem to care that she was talking to the book.

**'Come on! ... climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"Don't do that!" Rachel swatted Percy oh his head with a blue plastic hairbrush.

"Ouch!" Percy winced. "It's already happened for me, RED!"

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, … I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

"Oh gods," Annabeth squeezed Percy's hand harder, making it turn blue at the fingertips. "No, no, no. It can't be happening."

"Don't worry," Percy said. "It wasn't my thread."

"It wasn't yours?" Annabeth's eyes widened as her brain jumped into action.

Nico and Annabeth reached the conclusion at the same time.

"Blue?" Annabeth looked miserable.

"It's him, isn't it?" Nico asked.

"Yeah."

Thalia's eyes widened. "You mean…?"

Percy nodded.

"I see." Rachel said.

Others looked on as they communicated with half-formed phrases and nods.

 _'As long as it wasn't his.'_ Poseidon sigh in relief. Almost everyone else was thinking the same thing.

 _'If it wasn't his, whose was it?'_ Athena thought.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks … wondering who they could possibly be for – Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"How can you joke around at such a scary time?" Hazel demanded.

Octavian, who had just woken up to hear about the Fates and cutting the yarn part, looked giddy. Because he was such a stupid and slow creature, he had not realized Percy said that the yarn they cut wasn't his.

**At the rear of the bus … and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**'Darn right! … Everybody back on board!'**

**Once we got going … feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

"I thought you said the thread wasn't yours!" Poseidon exclaimed.

"It wasn't!" Percy said.

**Grover didn't look much better … shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**'Grover?'**

**'Yeah?'**

**'What are … not telling me?'**

"Everything," Leo said.

**He dabbed his forehead … what did you see back at the fruit stand?'**

**'You mean the old ladies? … They're not like… Mrs Dodds, are they?'**

"No," Jason said. "They are someone even worse."

**His expression was hard to read … much worse than Mrs Dodds.**

_'He truly is observant.'_ Athena noticed.

**He said … what you saw.'**

**'The middle one … cut the yarn.'**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture … something else, something almost- older.**

_'Maybe, he isn't so dumb after all.'_ Athena thought.

**He said … snip the cord.'**

**'Yeah. So?' … I knew it was a big deal.**

"Oh, it's a big deal all right." Frank interrupted himself.

**'This is not happening … I don't want this to be like the last time.'**

"It won't," Thalia said with a sad smile.

**'What last time?'**

**'Always sixth … never get past sixth.'**

"That must have been disturbing," Reyna said.

"Creepy." Percy agreed.

**'Grover,' I said ... 'What are you talking about?'**

"You should be scared, punk." Area said in a gruff voice. "Fates don't appear in front of you every day."

**'Let me walk you home … bus station. Promise me.'**

**This seemed like a strange … I promised he could.**

**'Is this like a superstition … I asked.**

"Far from superstition." Hades muttered lowly.

**No answer.**

**'Grover- that snipping … mean somebody is going to die?'**

"If you had even a little bit of brains in there, where did it go during our quests?" Annabeth rapped Percy's forehead.

"I didn't need to use it." Percy smiled. "I had you with me."

"Seaweed Brain." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

Aphrodite squealed. Athena gave Percy a murder glare. If looks could kill, he would be dead by now.

"Stop flirting, you two," Thalia said.

"DON'T YOU DARE FLIRT WITH MY DAUGHTER!" Athena looked ready to kill one son of Poseidon.

Percy put his hands up in surrender. Frank continued reading.

**He looked at me mournfully … picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Frank closed the book. "Who wants to read next?"

"You don't want to continue reading?" Annabeth asked innocently.

"Hades, no! I don't!" Frank exclaimed. "Not with all those interruptions!"

"Ahem!" Hades cleared his throat.

"Zhang." Nico glared at Frank and Hazel pouted at her boyfriend.

"Sorry, Sorry!" Frank quickly backtracked. "I mean- Hera, no."

"Excuse me!?" Hera's eye twitched.

Annabeth, Thalia, Rachel, and Percy looked smug.

"I'll read." A voice sounded.

Everyone looked at the owner of the voice with surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might have noticed that I am putting a lot of attention to time travel and stuff. That's cause it's an important part. I have plans for ending and it is not the cliche thing.
> 
> Please review and tell me what you think of the chapter.
> 
> Who do you think spoke at the last?
> 
> Also please tell me one thing, is the length of the chapter alright? Longer? Shorter?
> 
> Until next time!


	5. I Ditch My Friend, My Friend Ditches Pants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year and late Merry Christmas!
> 
> Let's hope for a wonderful and corona free year ahead.
> 
> What's your New Year's resolution? Mine is to keep writing this story and write another one- a PJ x Naruto crossover. 
> 
> Word count: 10,870 words!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson. I have only '...' few parts of the chapter (the real one, the one written by Rick Riordan) and if there aren't any complaints, from the next chapter I will remove only minimum parts.

**Chapter-4 I Ditch My Friend, My Friend Ditches Pants**

Hestia rarely spoke nowadays. It was a well-known fact. She engaged in polite conversations but never really spoke out in a meeting unless his brothers were doing something rather foolish. Well, more foolish than usual. She quietly tended to her hearth and visited Camp Half-Blood as much as she could.

Camp Half-Blood. Demigods. She adored every single one of them. Why would she not? They're her family. Perhaps that was the reason she kept visiting Camp Half-Blood so often. To watch them grow. To watch them laugh and provide them her hearth's warmth.

She didn't mind if they don't notice her. As long as they were safe, that's all that mattered to her. Besides, it wasn't like her own brothers and sisters noticed her much of the time.

So imagine her surprise when a dozen of demigods dropped out of nowhere and Fates send them a note instructing them to read about a certain demigod.

A pleasant surprise indeed.

' _Maybe, after this, they will pay more attention to their children_.' She had thought.

And imagine the surprise of other gods (and goddesses) when Hestia volunteered to read. But not demigods. They weren't nearly as surprised as gods. Though they were surprised when she walked up from the hearth and sat on the couch between Hades and Poseidon.

Frank silently passed the book over to her.

As the initial surprise faded, gods and goddesses offered her a huge smile.

" **Chapter-3** ," Hestia began. " **Grover unexpectedly loses his pant.** "

"He what now?" Thalia exclaims before realizing she just interrupted a goddess. "Sorry, Milady. I didn't mean to interrupt you."

"Don't worry, dear." The said goddess assured. "And call me Hestia."

"Is Aunt Hestia fine?"

"Certainly," Goddess replied and nodded towards demigods. "All of you can call me that."

"Sorry to interrupt you, Aunt Hestia." Thalia grinned.

Goddess of hearth smiled back and continued reading.

**Confession time: I ditched … we got to the bus terminal.**

Annabeth facepalmed. "Why am I not surprised?"

**I know, I know. It was rude.**

"Then why did you do it?" Nico asked.

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man … "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"Fair enough." Son of Hades shrugged.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up … Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"Amazing." Annabeth smiled.

"Awesome." Thalia grinned.

"Kind," Nico said with a small smile.

"Best mother in the whole world!" Percy proudly declared.

"Hey! No fair." Thalia frowned. "We were supposed to describe her in one word otherwise I would have already said that!"

"But nobody said anything about the one world rule!" Green-eyed teen argued.

While the other demigods watched them fight with wonder, Leo, Frank, and Hazel were thinking about their own mothers.

 _'My daughter seems close to that sea spawn's mother.'_ Athena did not look happy about the fact.

Poseidon's smile couldn't possibly get wider. Actually, it could but that would result in an unfortunate splitting of his face.

When the fighting finally died down, Hestia continued reading.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world,**

Four demigods nodded in unison.

**which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"Pessimist," Reyna muttered.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five … quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

Everyone winced.

"You know," Jason said. "You might just be right with that theory of yours, bro."

"Glad you agree with me, bro." Percy leaned over to give the son of Jupiter a 'bro fist bump'.

"Bro!"

"Bro!"

Annabeth looked horrified. "Not again! I was hoping we could avoid that."

"You cannot stop our bromance, Wise Girl."

Piper mirrored Annabeth's expression. "What the Hera?"

A goddess's eye twitched. That goddess's name was Hera.

"It's called bromance, Pipes!"

"Bromance?" Piper said in the ultimate deadpanned tone. She exchanged a look with Annabeth and an understanding passed between them.

Both of them grabbed their boyfriends by their ears and lead them towards the three-seater sofa where Octavian was sitting alone.

"What?" Percy, Jason, and Octavian said simultaneously.

"You can sit here and bro each other all you want now." Annabeth smiled sweetly. It was the sweet smile that promised pain before the unavoidable death.

"But why do we have to sit with him?" Jason pointed towards Octavian.

"Yes!" The blonde descendent of Apollo squeaked. "Why do they have to sit with me?"

But the poor boy's squeak went unheard and Piper and Annabeth were already on their way back.

"It only gets worse, doesn't it?" Piper asked.

"You have no idea," Annabeth answered back.

"Better to root out the problem entirely." Piper nodded and claimed Percy's seat next to Annabeth.

Gods (except for Athena, Zeus and Hades; Poseidon was smiling) and demigods (except for Nico) alike had tears running down their faces from laughing too hard.

"Not too late to join the hunt, you two." Thalia offered.

"Such a beautiful bromance!" Aphrodite was shedding tears of joy.

"Bro, they don't get us," Percy said.

"I know, bro," Jason replied.

"Bro, after we go back to our respective time, let's make our own camp."

"Only bros allowed."

"We'll call it Brome."

"Bro, that's bro-eautiful."

"Thanks, bro."

"Bro!"

"Bro!"

Demigods watched their conversation go on with amusement.

Rachel, while enjoying the show, decided to stop their conversation which had turned into calling each other 'bro' and not including any other word in the sentence.

"Alright, that's enough you two." She pulled out a blue plastic hairbrush. "Or would you like me to hit you both with this?"

"Reminder," Nico added darkly. "It incapacitated a Titan."

Percy and Jason instantly stopped their 'bro'-ing.

"Rachel wouldn't hit me." Percy smiled.

"Wanna bet?" Rachel grinned wickedly and let her deadly weapon sail through the air, towards Percy.

Now, if Percy's reflexes weren't as good as they were, he couldn't have pulled Octavian who was sitting next to him in the way of the lethal blue projectile flying towards his left eye with deathly accuracy. But he _was_ that good and managed to pull the human shield a.k.a. Octavian just in time so it was the legacy of Apollo who got hit in the eye and not him.

"That was a close one, bro," Jason said.

"Yeah, bro."

"Not too late to join the hunt!" Thalia repeated.

"I might just take you on that offer, Thalia," Piper said.

"I'll consider it," Annabeth said.

As if someone had shouted the last blue cookie on earth was about to be eaten, both the boys turned towards Thalia.

"Don't you dare, Thalia!" Jason yelled.

"Stay away from my girlfriend, Thalia!" Percy yelled.

"Well, maybe I'll refuse the offer if you tone it down with your bromance, Jason!" Daughter of Aphrodite rolled her eyes.

Daughter of Athena, on the other hand, winced and glanced up at her mother.

Athena seemed frozen. Her eyes wide and her jaw slacked.

A single word bouncing around in her head.

A single word that will haunt her forever.

The word spoken by a sea spawn.

_Girlfriend._

"Girlfriend?" She whispered to herself before jumping up and yelling, "STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER, YOU SEA SCUM! I'LL TURN YOU INTO A COCKROACH!"

"You can't turn my son into a cockroach, Athena!" Poseidon jumped to his feet too.

"No!" Aphrodite shrieked. "Percabeth can't prevail if Percy's a cockroach!"

"Fates said not to harm the demigods," Goddess of wisdom had a crazed and murderous look. "Turning him into a cockroach isn't going to hurt him."

"But it will be traumatic!" Percy spoke up. "It will hurt me mentally!"

"Why you little-" Athena was cut off Hestia.

"Calm down, Athena. You're just angry because your daughter's lover is Poseidon's son. You shouldn't hold such prejudices." Goddess of heart scolded.

Many god's jaws dropped open.

"A-aunt Hestia!" Athena looked stunned.

"Give the boy a chance before you judge him." Hestia continued. "Look at Poseidon, he isn't turning on your daughter. Even if you hate him, remember children can be different from their parents."

Firstborn of Kronos and Rhea was right and Athena knew that. Gods, after all, were the prime example of that.

"Yes, Aunt Hestia." She mumbled quietly and sat down on her throne again.

To say everyone was stunned was an understatement. But even among them, the most shocked was none other than the king of gods himself.

First, some demigods from the future show up and he finds out Poseidon has a son (A son! Can you believe that? He broke the oath! That scoundrel!). And when he wanted to talk to Thalia and Jason during the break, Artemis and Aphrodite dragged them off to they know where. After that Hestia offers to read and he finds out Poseidon and Athena's children are in a relationship (The wonders never end). And if that wasn't enough surprise for the day, Hestia actually scolded Athena for trying to turn that sea scum into a cockroach!

The last thing his poor brain needed right now was more chaos. Speaking of chaos, where were Hermes's brats? He couldn't see them in the throne room.

 _'They better not be up to something.'_ He thought before clearing his throat. "Alright, Athena won't turn Poseidon's brat into a cockroach for now. Let's get back to the chapter." He turned towards Hestia. "Sister?"

Goddess of hearth took this as her cue to start reading.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"Awww!" Goddess of love cooed.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

"You visited him?" Hades raised an eyebrow at his brother.

"Once," Poseidon admitted.

"You do know that's against the rules, right?" Hades drawled.

"I said just once! I didn't stay long and besides," God of seas said. "It's already happened."

The two gods were, fortunately, talking in voices low enough that only the two of them could hear.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married … he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Well, that's technically not a lie." Percy shrugged.

"It's just not the full truth. It's a…" Apollo left his sentence hanging.

"Half-truth." Hermes nodded along. "They can be a dangerous thing."

"So now," Nico frowned. "Apollo and Hermes are replacing Stolls?"

Hazel looked around, "Speaking of which, where are they?"

"Yeah," Frank said. "I haven't seen them for a while."

"They're probably just making sure of _that_." Leo grinned.

**She worked odd jobs … never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Understatement of the century." Rachel rolled her eyes.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano … I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"I don't even want to imagine that." Hazel fanned her face.

"EWWWW!" Aphrodite shrieked and proceeded to drown herself in rose-scented perfume.

"Hold on." Reyna leaned forward. "His last name itself says Ugly-ano."

"AAHHHH!" Aphrodite shrieked again. "KEEP THAT MAN AWAY FROM ME!"

Percy frowned. ' _Why is he in the book? I thought this was just supposed to be my quest.'_

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her,**

"And just how did he treat Sally?" Poseidon asked dangerously.

Percy just frowned at the floor.

**the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment … Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

"What?" Frank asked. "That's it?"

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"'You got any cash?' That is no way to greet someone!" Demeter exclaimed.

Everyone looked at her in surprise. _Did she just say a sentence without cereal in it?_

"What?" She asked when she noted all the gaping mouths. "It's rude to stare like that. You all need to eat more cereal!"

 _Nah. She's back_.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus … his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Oh my me!" Aphrodite cried. "Is it possible to be that ugly?"

And then she proceeded to cake herself in makeup and started smoothing out non-existent faults in her hair. It did not hide the fact her face was turning green with nausea.

"He's definitely not winning any beauty prizes anytime soon," Leo muttered.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time … spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer.**

"Wine is better," Dionysus mumbled from under his magazine.

**Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

An edgy silence fell over the room as the last sentence sunk in.

 _'All men are the same.'_ Artemis thought. _'All of them are pigs.'_

"Percy," Thalia started. "Did he ever-"

"No," Percy replied forcefully.

"Percy..."

"It was just once, okay?" Percy mumbled furiously. "It doesn't matter!"

_'Why are we reading all this anyway? We were just supposed to read about that dam quest! And why is the book based on my thoughts? It's an invasion of privacy!'_

"It does matter Percy." Poseidon frowned. "Did you ever tell Sally?"

"Look, can we just keep reading?" Percy looked at the goddess holding the book. "Aunt Hestia?"

"Hold on." Poseidon stood up and turned towards Zeus. "We can't bring here people from the future but we can bring people from the present, right?"

"What are you getting at, Poseidon?" King of gods said, already having a good idea what his brother meant.

"After this chapter ends, I'd like to bring Sally and this Gabe to Olympus." God of oceans sneered at 'Gabe'.

Percy looked at his dad with surprise.

"And why should I allow that?" Zeus raised an eyebrow. "There're _mortals_."

"Sally is Percy's mother and she deserves to know everything that's happening as much as any of us," Poseidon said calmly.

"Are you comparing us to those mortals?" Zeus thundered.

Poseidon opened his mouth to counter but a note glided down in front of Zeus.

"Is it from Fates?" Athena asked as Zeus snatched it out of the air.

"Yes," He replied and read the note aloud.

_Olympians,_

_You shall bring Sally Jackson and Gabe Ugliano to Olympus after finishing the chapter. You are not allowed to hurt Sally Jackson mentally, physically, intentionally, or unintentionally. You are allowed to punish Gabe Ugliano as you see fit._

_Fates_

"Well, that settles it." Sea god smiled smugly while the king of gods seethed.

"Fine."

While gods were talking Jason had dragged Octavian to where Annabeth and Piper were sitting, Annabeth claimed Jason's spot next to Percy, Piper and Jason went back to their seats next to Leo after dumping Octavian on the now-empty couch.

"What the Hera just happened?" Percy asked.

"Your mom and Gabe are coming to Olympus after this chapter." Annabeth squeezed her boyfriend's hand. "Don't worry, it'll be fine. I'm here with you."

"You're here with me," Percy repeated with a small smile before a thought struck him. "Wait, but doesn't that mean mom will read the books with us?"

"Yes." Daughter of Athena sighs at Percy's panicked face. "Let me guess, you don't want your mom to know about the dangerous things you did on your quest?"

"Hera yeah, I don't!" Percy exclaimed. "I always gave her the watered-down version of the quest! I don't want her to worry about me."

"Sally's a smart woman, I bet she already knew you weren't telling her everything," Annabeth said. "But look on the bright side, Fates said not to harm Sally and said we can do whatever we want to do with Gabe."

"That is a very good bright side." Percy looked at his girlfriend. "Thanks for pointing it out."

Annabeth smiled in response.

Hestia started reading.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Athena narrowed her eyes as a thought struck her.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change.**

"He has a brain?" Dionysus sounded surprised.

Hephaestus looked at Dionysus in surprise, "You were paying attention?"

**Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

"He can't honestly mean that!" Piper exclaimed.

"He does." Percy put it bluntly.

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least someone has a little decency," Poseidon said.

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels.**

"I take that back."

**The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

Aphrodite threw up.

Fortunately, Hephaestus was expecting this and was quick enough to put a bucket under the goddess of love's nose.

"Thanks." She said weakly.

The blacksmith nodded.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"He ain't winning ever again," Dionysus said actually looking up from his magazine.

"Mr. D?" Percy looked at the god incredulously.

"What?" The god went back to his magazine. "It's rude to stare, Pineapple Jackfruit."

Percy's jaw dropped open in horror while others laughed like maniacs.

"My name is Percy Jackson, not fruit salad!"

"It's Pumpkin Jalapeno, obviously."

"Are you hungry or something because that is NOT MY NAME!"

"Well, it has been a while since I had any wine so-"

"No." Zeus cut him off.

"He does that purposefully," Percy crossed his arms. "Change my mind."

"No one's gonna argue about that." Rachel laughed.

"At least he got the Jackson's Jack right in Jackfruit." Frank offered.

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"Brain Boy?" Thalia broke into another round of laughter.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's 'study'.**

Athena and Annabeth raised their eyebrows.

**He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines,**

"That cannot be considered as 'study'." Athena frowned.

**but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

Aphrodite fainted.

"I'm surprised she lasted this long," Artemis muttered.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"Can you be more sarcastic?" Leo asked curiously.

"Don't, Leo!" Annabeth scolded. "He's going to take that as a challenge!"

Percy grinned his famous lopsided grin. "I'm not called King of sass, Persassy Jackson, for no reason Leo."

"Nobody calls you that." Nico deadpanned.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"It couldn't have been that bad, right?" Hazel asked.

"No, it wasn't _that_ bad but almost as bad," Percy said sagely.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how had made me promise I wouldn't go home without him.**

"You shouldn't have ditched Grover," Thalia said in a matter-of-fact tone.

**A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

"Foreshadowing or paranoia?" Hades raised an eyebrow.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

All most all the girls, including goddesses, aww-ed.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

"Momma's boy." Ares taunted.

"Aww." Aphrodite conveniently woke up as soon as Percy's mother was mentioned.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm … few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old.**

Poseidon smiled nostalgically.

**When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"She sounds like a wonderful mother," Hera said softly.

Percy, not caring it was Hera who said it, agreed whole-heartedly. "She is."

Hera felt that maybe she could connect to demigods after all.

"Unlike you," Hephaestus said gruffly.

Too bad that feeling only lasted a couple of seconds.

Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Nico, Artemis, Apollo, and Athena snickered.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice … She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Wow, Percy, your mom is amazing!" Leo said, his mind stuck on the bag of free samples.

 _Candies,_ he imagined his chibi version with candy for eyes drooling at the sight of the mountain of candies, _so many candies!_

**We sat together on the edge of the bed … She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"How did a wonderful woman like that ever end up with you, Poseidon?" Hades asked.

Practically all the gods in the room were thinking the same thing as Hades while the demigods were thinking of how kind Percy's mother was. They were wondering how their life would have turned out if they had a mother like that. Their mother had either died when they were young or were goddesses who couldn't spend time with them. Hazel did grow up with her mother, but she wasn't who you would call the best mother.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

"Who wouldn't be happy to see Sally?" Thalia said.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

Noticeable looks of fury washed over almost every person in the room.

"Why that…" Poseidon looked ready to storm down the Olympus and kill Gabe.

Other gods and demigods didn't look much different.

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

Poseidon nodded in agreement.

"She has Paul now," Percy whispered, smiling softly.

"Yes, she does." Annabeth smiled.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time.**

"You mean you got kicked out of a school mid-year before?" Thalia asked.

"No comments," Percy said in a neutral voice.

**I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin … I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum …**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

"Mother's intuition," Hera said sagely. "She always knows what's best for her child."

' _I wonder_ ,' Hephaestus thought drily. ' _Was it her intuition that compelled her to throw me off Olympus? Because she thought that would be best for me?_ '

**"No, Mom."**

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"No, it wouldn't." Poseidon looked at his son. "You should have told her everything."

"Yes, but look at it from my side," Percy said. "I didn't know about gods back then and I didn't know that mom knew about gods. Plus, I was still half-convinced I was hallucinating about Mrs. Dodds."

"That makes sense." Poseidon scratched his chin.

"Why do you still call Alecto Mrs. Dodds?" Nico asked.

"Habit." Percy shrugged.

"Hold on," Thalia frowned. "What Percy just said made sense!"

Annabeth, Rachel, and Nico's eyes widened comically.

"Who are you and what have you done with our Percy?" Rachel brandished her weapon.

"Come on!" Percy scowled. "This isn't that surprising!"

"It is, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth considered if the man before her eyes was the real Percy Jackson or not.

"I don't get it," Hazel said, confused.

"I don't know why it's so surprising," Frank said. "Percy's isn't that stupid."

Percy turned towards Frank, "Thank you! Someone who believes in me!"

"I don't know guys," Thalia said. "Is he really our Percy?"

"Thalia," Reyna said. "For a however short amount of time, Percy was Camp Jupiter's praetor. I believe there are some minimum brain usage requirements set in place and Percy did pass them."

A silence settled over as demigods considered what Reyna said. Gods were just dumbfounded at how easily the demigods were ignoring them.

Rude.

Poor Percy was staring at everyone in disbelief.

"I agree with Reyna," Jason said. "My bro Percy can be smart when he wants to."

"Well, Percy is dating a daughter of Athena." Leo pointed out. "Maybe Annabeth's intelligence rubbed off on Percy."

Athena scowled at the reminder. She decided to put all her anger and frustration in her glare which she directed at the son of Poseidon.

' _Of course, he is dumb,_ ' she thought. ' _Just like his old man_.'

"You know what?" Percy asked no one in particular. "I feel like punching someone."

As if rehearsed, every single person's head turned towards one blond legacy of Apollo. Except for Athena, she was too busy glaring at her daughter's 'boyfriend'.

"WHAT? I AM NO PUNCHING BAG!" Octavian shrieked like they were plotting his murder. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

"Are you sure he's related to me?" Apollo had a pleading look which begged them to say: ' _LOL, nope. He ain't related to you. Just a mistake._ '

"Yes." A dozen voices answered.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Percy said as he stood in front of Octavian, who was shaking with fear.

_WHAM!_

_THUD!_

Octavian curled into a ball on the ground as Percy's punch sent him flying over the couch he was sitting on.

"That felt surprisingly satisfying!" Percy exclaimed, his hand still outstretched.

" _Duh_." Piper rolled her eyes. "It was Octavian."

"Um… I know Octavian did some pretty bad stuff but should we be beating him up like that?" Hazel asked.

Everyone turned to stare at her like she had grown another head.

"Hazel you were the second person to punch Octavian," Nico said. "And you punched him hard."

"I did?" Hazel looked confused and surprised.

"Yeah," Annabeth confirmed. "It was you from Octavian's time."

"Being the cinnamon roll you are, I didn't think you could get angry like that." Leo grinned.

"W-what?" Hazel blushed, though it was difficult to tell because of her dark skin.

"It looked like an angry Nico's spirit had taken over you." Thalia patted Nico on the back.

"I take offense to that." Nico scowled.

"No, really," Jason said. "It was like you were a completely different person."

"Ahem!" Zeus interrupted. "If your meaningless chatter is finished let's continue reading, shall we?"

As demigods settled down, Hestia began reading. Octavian was still curled in a ball on the ground, he wasn't sure if going back and sitting on the couch was safe yet.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

Percy and Poseidon smile fondly.

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Well, of course, there wasn't enough money!" Apollo exclaimed. "How would there be if he spends it all on gambling and drinking?"

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

"Fates said when he gets here," Poseidon grit his teeth. "We can do anything we want to, right?"

"I am looking forward to riddling his body with arrows," Artemis said coldly.

"I'll help you, little sister," Apollo said cheerfully.

"I am not your little sister!" Artemis whirled around.

"Oh brother, here we go again." Hermes sigh. The rest of the gods followed his example.

"Hey, I was born first." Apollo chuckled.

"We're twins! How many millennia do we have to argue-"

"I was just offering to help you use this Gabe guy as target practice!"

"Déjà vu." Percy, Thalia and Nico said in unison.

Their argument was so similar to the one they had witnessed in the forest near Westover Hall, it was uncanny.

 _'How is it every time we are talking about Gabe we get side-tracked?'_ Poseidon wondered.

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood … nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

"Smart woman." Apollo complimented.

Poseidon narrowed his eyes at the sun god, "Don't get any funny ideas."

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will … worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Bribery." Hermes had stars in his eyes. "This woman is amazing!"

"I know right!" Apollo exclaimed. "I can't wait to meet her!"

Poseidon glared at both of the gods while demigods who have had Sally's cooking in the past tried not to drool. Especially Percy.

Athena narrowed her eyes. _'Very smart indeed.'_

"Cereal!" Demeter said. "That man needs to eat more cereal!"

Before Demeter could launch into a five-hour lecture about the importance of cereal, Hestia started reading.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip … it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

Everyone in the room instinctively covered their ears. Little good did it do against the goddess of beauty's ear-splitting shriek.

"Clothes budget!" She shrieked with a horrified expression and tears running down her cheek. "That poor woman! How dare that man…"

She turned towards Percy who flinched. "Don't worry, dear. I will make sure your mother never has to sacrifice something like that. I will give her a nice makeover and …"

She babbled on about wardrobes and cursing Gabe.

"Are you sure you're related to her?" Jason whispered to her girlfriend.

"Sometimes, even I have difficulty believing that," Piper answered.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

Aphrodite burst into another round of tears.

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

Percy snickered.

**"We'll be very careful."**

'Very _careful.'_ Percy thought.

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip … And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"Interrupting?" Hades raised an eyebrow. "I thought the boy funded it."

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"Do it!" The majority of the people exclaimed.

Percy was half expecting Stolls to add something more like _'in a walrus costume'_ or something but when he didn't hear anything like that he looked around. They were still MIA.

 _'Come to think of it,'_ Percy thought. _'I haven't seen them ever since the chapter started.'_

"Hey guy," He called out. "Do you know where Stolls are?"

"No," Nico replied. "I've been wondering about that too."

"Ah, about that." Hephaestus said, "They're both about the side in the back garden with me."

 _'With him? But he's here!'_ Percy thought before remembering he was a god and gods do whatever they want. Best not to think too much about that.

"And what are they doing there when they should be here reading?" Hades questioned.

"They're telling me how they want the demigod quarters to be."

"Demigod quarters?" Hera looked at her son.

"A small building where demigods can stay while they're on Olympus." Hephaestus went back to tinkering with his latest invention. "You don't think this is the only quest the brat- the boy will go on do you? Or that we can finish them all today? They will need a place to stay and I don't suppose there are any mortal size bedrooms in the palace."

"But why them?" Annabeth asked. "Wouldn't I be a better choice? I am the architect of Olympus in the future."

A few gods looked surprised at the revelation. Athena looked proud.

"Why do we need an architect?" Zeus frowned at the girl.

Everyone ignored Zeus.

"Ah, they did tell me about you but more than architecture they just wanted to tell me the overview of the things they wanted to include in the quarters. I can handle the rest on my own." Hephaestus waved his hand in a _'Don't worry'_ motion.

"Alright."

"Don't ignore me!" Zeus thundered. "Why do we need an architect in the future?"

Everyone ignored Zeus.

Hestia started reading.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream.**

"If what I thinking is correct," Athena looked at Percy. "Then that means your mother is a very smart woman."

"What you're thinking is correct, Lady Athena," Percy said, having a good idea as to what she was referring to.

"A smart woman, indeed. I would certainly like to meet her." Athena said before turning to glare at Poseidon. "It's unfortunate she met you."

"Hey!"

**Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now.**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"Was there anything other than sarcasm in the statement?" Frank asked rhetorically.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

Dozens of jaws dropped open.

**He went back to his game.**

"Incredible," Hades muttered. "I didn't know it was possible to be that stupid."

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about … whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

"Foreshadowing," Reyna muttered.

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to … groaning about losing her cooking—and more importantly, his 78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

"He's worried about his car and cooking but not his wife?" Hera frowned. "What an indecent man."

 _'You just figured that out now?'_ Percy thought.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"But it's not like he'll be driving!" Hazel protested.

Percy grinned at ' _not one little scratch'_. Technically, there hadn't been 'one little scratch' on the car. Now the fact that the car was completely blown up was another matter entirely. At least it didn't 'one little scratch'.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

_'Hmm. What kind of punishment would fit him the best?'_ Hades started thinking of some creative punishments to assign to Gabe after he died. He had a feeling, the man wouldn't live more than a few minutes after he arrived at Olympus. Not with all the gods, goddesses, and demigods waiting in line to kill him. And the man had certainly qualified all the conditions required to make Field of Punishment his new home.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus … toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase … just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"He deserves it," Nico said.

"It is rare for a demigod to be able to do that," Dionysus noted.

"Do what?" Rachel asked.

"The sign Pepsi Jelly Bean did," Dionysus answered like it was obvious.

"Pepsi… Jelly Bean?" Percy repeated, his mouth wide open in horror. "Please tell me you weren't talking about me."

"Who else would I be talking about, Popcorn Jam Tart?" Dionysus looked up from his magazine towards Percy Jackson. "Now stop annoying me."

1… 2… 3…

Everyone burst into manic laughter.

"How?" Percy croaked. "How is it possible to get a name that wrong? It's like he's actively trying to come up with _wrong_ names!"

"Maybe." Dionysus shrugged.

"So you admit it." Percy jumped to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at the god of wine.

Dionysus frowned, "Didn't I tell you to stop annoying me, Peanut Butter Jelly?"

Percy curled on the ground with his arms around his knees and gloom lines over his head. "I am not some sort of food, dammit!"

After everyone had finally calmed down, Hestia continued reading.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore … faded curtains, half-sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets**

Annabeth gripped Percy's hand. "Spiders."

Athena shuddered.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer … beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"How romantic!" Aphrodite clapped her hands together.

With Gabe gone, Aphrodite certainly seemed better.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"Beautiful," Apollo said. "She's both smart and beautiful."

Both Percy and Poseidon glared at him. "DON'T GET ANY FUNNY IDEAS!"

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabins windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine … walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What's up with blue food?" Leo asked. "You said it will be explained in the book but it hasn't yet."

Hestia laughed and continued reading.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

Leo let out a small "Oh."

"Please do," Piper muttered.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing.**

Octavian had kept quiet this whole time listening to everyone else read because he did not want to be punched again. But that hadn't completely helped. People like Jackson and Dare especially went out of their way just to punch him. But still, after all those punches, you would think he learned his lesson, right?

Wrong.

"And he was right." Blond Legacy of Apollo muttered. "No such thing exists, only stupid people believe in something as ridiculous as blue food."

Every single head in the room turned towards Octavian.

"Trust me, boy," Poseidon spoke in a chilling voice. "If it weren't for the Fates forbidding us from hurting you, you'd be dead a hundred times over by now."

"Don't worry brother," Hades said. "One day he will die, I will keep something special in Field of Punishments ready for him. Just like I will for this Gabe."

Poseidon nodded in acknowledgment and watched as all the demigods (and Rachel) stood up and marched towards the shaking legacy of Apollo.

"I'm sorry!" He squeaked.

"Too late." Nico, who was sitting closest to Octavian, said as he pulled back his fist and smashed it right into the blonde's face.

All the demigods took their turn punching and kicking Octavian and by the end of it, the blond was an unrecognizable mess of blue and black bruises. Rachel then pulled out her newest and deadliest weapon in the arsenal.

A weaponized blue hairbrush.

"It's still a prototype so once I see the results I can improve it," Leo explained to her. "So as long as you don't aim for a vital organ, he'll live."

Rachel's new weapon didn't look much different from her regular blue plastic hairbrushes but its casing was made up of blue spray-painted celestial bronze. When and how Leo made it, only he knows. He had told her that he was planning to add celestial bronze spikes under the plastic covering of the teeth of the brush. That way, when she hit her target, the plastic casing would break and the target would be impaled by some nasty and very pointy celestial bronze spikes.

Rachel nodded and took her aim. It hit right where she wanted it to.

"AAAAEEEIII!"

Despite hating Octavian as much as everyone in the room did, the male population couldn't help but wince in sympathy. Artemis, Athena, Annabeth, Thalia, Reyna, and Piper looked on in interest whereas Hazel, Demeter, and Hera averted their eyes.

That was because Rachel's hairbrush hit Octavian where the sun doesn't shine.

Artemis, especially, looked on in interest. _'She would make a wonderful hunter!'_

"Low blow, RED." Percy winced. "Low blow."

"Oh, so you all can break all his bones and nearly kill him and I can't even hit him?" Rachel turned around.

"But you don't hit a man in that place," Leo winced, just like Percy. "It's like an unwritten rule."

"I don't know what you guys are talking about." Thalia grinned. "That was awesome, Rachel."

Rachel grinned back.

"Tell me, Rachel," Artemis asked. "Would you like to join the hunt?"

"I'd love to, Lady Artemis," Rachel said. "But I can't."

"Why not? You are such a fine maiden."

"Because… it's complicated. It will come up in the books." Rachel answered.

It wasn't like she could just go on and say- _Oh because I'm the current oracle of Delphi, you see. I can't choose you because I'm already under your brother's wing._ Of course not! Artemis would kill Apollo right then and there. And Rachel wasn't sure if the rest of the Olympians would be very impressed by that.

"I see." Artemis tried not to sound too disappointed.

"On the bright side," Rachel turned towards Leo. "Now you can improve your prototype!"

Leo was regretting ever inventing that thing in the first place. But he had a feeling an angry Rachel Elizabeth Dare would be nearly as bad as an angry Annabeth Chase. So to save his own skin and not end up like Octavian, he smiled and nodded.

"Apollo," Zeus said. "Go and heal the boy. We don't want him dying."

Apollo sigh but complied. Hestia began reading.

**They had this fight … ever since my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop.**

"Now that makes sense," Frank said.

**This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"Percy, you don't have anything other than rebellious streaks." Thalia chuckled.

"That's not true!" Percy protested.

"Well, then tell me when was the last time you actually obeyed someone?" Annabeth asked.

"I… um… I…" Percy wreaked his brain to search for the answer, only to come up with nothing.

"See?" Thalia pressed.

"Fine." Percy accepted his defeat.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

Poseidon smiled sadly as he remembered the stubborn refusal Sally had given him when he offered her to come and live with him at bottom of the ocean.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

Demigods smiled sadly. They were all like that before they knew the truth.

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"Yes," Zeus agreed. "The boy is a miniature Poseidon."

Hazel blushed as she remembered how she had thought Percy was a god when she first saw him.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"That's not true!" Poseidon argued. "I'm proud of you! I would have been proud back then too!"

"I know that, dad." Percy smiled to show he understood. "But I didn't back then."

"Six schools in six years?" Piper wondered if this was what Annabeth meant when told her to ask Percy.

"Yeah." Percy wince. "It continued for another four years before I managed to stay in Goodge for two years."

Leo whistled, "Nine schools in nine years. That's impressive!"

"Thanks." Percy grinned.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean... when he left?"**

Poseidon winced again.

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

Poseidon winced harder and buried his head in his hands.

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

Poseidon looked like he might die any minute because of guilt.

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"I always meant to ask you, dad," Percy snapped his fingers. "Did you come to visit me when I was a baby?"

"I did." Poseidon said, not bothered if Drama Queen Zeus heard him.

"You did what?" Zeus thundered. "You know it's forbidden to interfere in mortal affairs and visit your children."

"And why do we have that rule in the first place?" Hades glared at his brother.

"You know full well-" Zeus continued.

"I can understand mortal affairs but why can't we visit our own children?" Poseidon interrupted.

As Hades and Poseidon teamed up on Zeus, Demeter leaned over to Hera.

"They're actually having a meaningful debate this time!" She exclaimed.

"Yes, I am just as surprised as you are, sister," Hera replied.

During the entire argument, Thalia glared at her father.

"He doesn't have a single right to say that to Uncle P… like he's any better… did the same thing… Jason wouldn't exist… stupid airhead… likes to be a drama queen." Thalia kept ranting under her breath the entire time.

This wasn't to say demigods, Hermes and Apollo (who were also sitting with demigods) didn't hear the rant. They looked quite impressed.

After five minutes of continuous yelling, three elder gods finally calmed down.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

Poseidon went back to his wincing routine. His face must be getting quite some exercise.

**I felt angry at my father … I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"I did, it's my fault." Poseidon had that _I-Can-Die-Any-Moment-Because-Of-Guilt_ expression back. "I should have taken Sally with me."

"I fine, dad," Percy said. "I was just angry because I didn't know the truth back then. And you did ask mom to come with you. She declined, it was her choice."

"Sally's a strong-willed woman," Poseidon said fondly. "She wouldn't let me do anything for her."

"Yeah, exactly." Percy agreed. "Not your fault. And from now on, please do remember, I did not know the truth back then."

Poseidon nodded.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"You should!" Annabeth exclaimed indignantly as she smacked her boyfriend on his head.

"I'm sorry!" Percy yelped. "I didn't mean that!"

"You better not, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said darkly. "Otherwise I won't be the only one who's gonna kill you."

Percy looked around and realized all the demigods were glaring at him. Even a few gods like Artemis, Athena, and Apollo were glaring at him. Artemis and Athena he could understand but Apollo?

"Sorry!" Son of Poseidon raised his hands in surrender.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

"You are lucky to have such a kind mother, boy," Hephaestus said in his gruff voice.

"Yeah." Percy nodded. "Thanks."

Hera looked at her son, hurt. She was promptly ignored.

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are.**

"Very important." Annabeth nodded sagely.

**I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

"Oh, I don't know," Leo shrugged. "Monsters like Mrs. Dodds?"

Percy groaned. "Can we please remember this was before I knew the truth?"

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me … threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Did you sent him?" Percy asked looking at Poseidon.

"Yes." God of ocean confirmed. "I sent him to check on you."

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool … a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Just like Heracles," Hera stated.

"What?" Thalia rolled her eyes. "Did you send that snake after Percy too?"

"No, I didn't!" Hera snapped.

Before things could boil into another shouting contest, Hestia began reading.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

"Life of a demigod," Annabeth whispered.

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword.**

"You should tell her," Hazel said.

**But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"You put your life in danger because you didn't want to leave the beach?" Frank raised an eyebrow. "That is so like you, Percy."

"For the last time! I did not know about gods back then." Percy stressed each word of the last sentence.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could … told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

"And that is how they always die." Dionysus drawled.

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

Demigods who had been there smiled warmly at the thought of their home.

Dionysus groaned at the mention of 'that place filled with annoying brats'.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"Because-"

Leo was interrupted by Percy, "I did not know about gods back then!"

Son of Poseidon looked ready to strangle the son of Hephaestus.

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

"Why?" Hazel asked. "I thought there were summer-only campers too."

"There are," Percy confirmed. "I'm one of them. As for why mom thought I wouldn't come back, no idea."

"Maybe she thought you might not want to come back after you make friends and learn the truth." Piper offered.

"You would have a safe place to live, surrounded by people just like you," Thalia added.

"No Gabe." Rachel frowned as if just saying the name Gabe left a bitter taste in her mouth. That, actually might not be too far from the truth.

"Yeah, but why wouldn't I want to stay with mom?" Percy looked as confused and innocent as a newborn baby.

"AWWW!" Aphrodite cooed. "Such deep love!"

Artemis and Athena were surprised. Poseidon looked proud. Other gods smiled.

"You wouldn't." Annabeth kissed Percy's cheek.

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp…"**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"Demigod dream?" Frank asked.

"Yup." Percy said, popping the 'p'.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse, and a golden eagle,**

"Ju-Zeus and Poseidon." Reyna guessed.

Percy nodded.

**were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

All the gods and goddesses, except Zeus and Poseidon, facepalmed.

"Of course you're fighting!" Hera exclaimed. "At this point, I don't even why I'm surprised!"

"You two need to eat more cereal," Demeter advised. "It will help tame your violent instincts."

"Even in a dream…" Hermes sigh.

"I feel a haiku coming on." Apollo cleared his throat only to be met with a "NO!" from every single person in the room.

Apollo pouted. He was ignored.

Hestia continued reading.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons.**

"I'll win, naturally," Zeus smirked.

**The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings.**

"You were saying something, brother?" Poseidon smirked back.

**As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"Hades?" Two brothers looked at their third brother.

"How am I supposed to know?" Ruler of Underworld snapped and turned to look towards the son of Poseidon.

"No," Percy said. "It wasn't Uncle Hades."

"Don't be silly, boy." Zeus snapped. "Who else could it be?"

"I think you very well know who it could be." Thalia retorted before Percy could say anything.

"It's impossible!" Zeus refused his daughter's claim. "He's in Tartarus! Nobody can escape Tartarus!"

Three of the demigod's face darkened.

Before things could escalate, like Percy causing an earthquake or Nico summoning an army of dead or Annabeth unleashing her deadly glare (Mightiest of foes have crumbled under that glare), Hazel politely asked Hestia to continue.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion.**

Zeus tensed at 'slow motion'.

"It's not possible." He said stubbornly.

 _'That stubbornness of yours is what nearly got you killed last time.'_ Percy thought angrily. _'So many demigods died because of you!'_

**I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horses wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

"See? I did win." Despite the tense thought of Kronos returning, Zeus couldn't help but smile smugly at the thought of his victory.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses … twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

"A hurricane?" Poseidon frowned.

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.**

"How could you forget, Uncle Poseidon?" Apollo tried to lighten the mood.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

"A monster?" Hazel asked, worried.

**Percy nodded. Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice- someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

"Grover." Thalia guessed.

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't… he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nico frowned.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

"You shouldn't have ditched Grover." Annabeth, Thalia, Rachel, and Reyna said simultaneously.

Percy groaned.

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

"Ahh! Now the chapter title makes sense." Annabeth said.

"Grover wasn't wearing his pants," Reyna continued. "And it was Percy's first time seeing a fau- satyr."

**"O Zeus kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be...**

"You saw Alecto and Fates, it shouldn't be that surprising," Nico said.

"It was!" Percy protested. "My best friend had hooves where his legs should have been. He had no pants on and came searching for me in the middle of the night. And the weather was all strange."

"Fair point." Nico conceded.

"Goodness. This is the second time Percy has made sense today." Rachel gasped. "Is the world ending?"

Percy pouted.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

"Did she know Grover?" Frank asked.

"No, but she knew someone was watching over me," Percy replied.

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Finally!" Thalia said. "Your brain is really slow to process things, isn't it?"

"Is not!"

"That's the end of the chapter." Hestia interrupted the bickering siblings.

"Great!" Poseidon jumped to his feet. "Now, let me get Sally and this Gabe."

"Dad?" Percy asked quickly. "If you're going to summon them, could you summon mom outside? So, you know, I could explain things to her. Time travel, reading, and everything."

"Right," Poseidon said. "I'll come with you."

Percy smiled nervously.

Annabeth squeezed his hand and said, "I'll come with you too."

Percy shot her a grateful smile. He did not want to be alone while explaining all the stuff and what better person better than Annabeth to have by his side? Not only would she help him with explaining everything, but she would also keep him from going into a complete panic drive and do something stupid. His girlfriend is awesome that way.

"I will summon Gabe here," Hades said. "He does not need to know what is going on."

"I'll help you come up with an appropriate punishment for him." Nico looked at his father. "I mean, we are going to kill him, right?"

A fourteen-year-old boy speaking of murder like it's nothing would be concerning to most people, but at moment, the boy speaking wasn't your average teen and the rest of the people were thinking along the same lines anyway.

"Yes," Artemis answered. "That pig does not deserve to live."

Aphrodite sigh, "As I said, I do not want to be anywhere near that man. I'll go and meet Sally."

And so it was decided, Percy, Annabeth, Aphrodite, and Poseidon would explain everything to Sally outside the palace in the gardens while others would come up with a punishment best suited for Gabe.

"Don't worry," Thalia shot Percy a feral grin. "We won't kill Gabe until you get back."

* * *

**Omake- How it all began.**

Kronos was holding his firstborn, a daughter, in his arms.

"I want to name her Hestia," Rhea said softly.

Kronos frowned.

His daughter's aura felt different. It was nice but not good. It was like incomplete good. Like... like god- good but with only one 'o'.

He remembered his father's words. They were 'YOUR CHILDREN WILL CUT YOU TO PIECES JUST LIKE ME!' or something like that.

He felt his daughter's aura again. It was so warm. Not cold like a Titan's should be.

"Hestia, huh?" Titan of time eyed his daughter.

"You like it?" Rhea smiled.

"It's a nice name." He said and then he swallowed her.

Rhea was stunned for a minute before she started yelling at Kronos.

"WHAT THE TARTARUS WAS THAT? YOU JUST ATE OUR DAUGHTER!"

"But she was just so god! Like good but with only one 'o'." Kronos raised his hands in surrender.

"She was our daughter!" Rhea glared at her brother/husband. "And you are saying you ate her because you thought she tasted good? And now you are saying she didn't taste good?"

"Let's try again. Next time I'm sure our child will be good with both the 'o'."

Rhea looked at his brother/husband like he was crazy, which she was sure he was but agreed in the end.

And the process repeated itself several times before Rhea got tired of watching her brother/husband eat all her precious little babies and asked her mother for help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This omake was something that popped up in my mind and wouldn't go away so I wrote it. It wasn't even funny. T_T
> 
> Anyway, Sally in the next chapter!
> 
> I have three questions for everyone, cause I haven't decided on the answers myself (except for the last one).
> 
> What will be Gabe's punishment?
> 
> How do I keep beating up Octavian? I am running out of ideas. Though I did very much enjoy writing the last Octavian beat up scene.
> 
> And the final and most important question- Did you enjoy the chapter? (Extra question- How was Percy and Jason's bromance?)
> 
> REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!
> 
> Until next time!


	6. Ugly-no man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> Sorry for the shorter chapter, but I didn't want to continue the chapter with reading after 5k words. Another 7k-8k words and it would have been too long.
> 
> I'm shifting all the other usual A/N stuff at the bottom.
> 
> Word count- 5002 words
> 
> Disclaimer: I own Percy Jackson because I am secretly Rick Riordan not most definitely not a teenager. (For those who didn't get it, it's sarcasm. Look at my username, ppl.)

**Chapter-5 Ugly-no man and Ugly-no jackalope**

Sally was having a good day. The weather was good. The business was good. Not a single prickly customer had entered her shop yet. And she didn’t even have to see Gabe’s face in the morning. The last reason might or might not have something to do with her being in a good mood though.

 _‘What a wonderful day!’_ She thought and unknowingly broke the first Law of Percy Jackson. Albeit, her son hadn’t created it yet. But then again, the future version of her son was sitting with gods so it should come as no surprise when Sally was suddenly standing in a garden with her hand still outstretched to give the customer their jelly bean order.

The first thought she had was not how beautiful the garden was or how she got there, no, those were the second and third thoughts respectively. Her first thought was the one filled with horror- _‘Did I jinx myself?’_

“What the…?” Sally’s hand fell back to her side.

“Mom!” The candy shop owner turned around to come face to face with a mini-Poseidon. She vaguely noticed three people were standing behind him.

No, wait. That can’t be right. He called her ‘mom’. And the only person who calls her that is…

“Percy?” Sally gasped, her eyes wide. “But that can’t be true!”

“Umm… yes.” The mini-Poseidon rubbed the back of his neck. “You see, about that-”

Mini-Poseidon was cut off by a squeal. The next thing Sally knew, she was looking at the most gorgeous woman she had ever laid her eyes on.

“Oh my me!” She put her hands on Sally’s shoulder. “You’re as pretty as I thought you would be! Poseidon chose well, didn’t he? I can-”

“Aphrodite, give her room to breathe.” Someone with a very familiar voice cut her off. The lady- Aphrodite- pouted but stepped back.

“What-what’s going on?” Sally asked before she realized something. “Hold on a second, Aphrodite as in goddess of love Aphrodite?” ‘ _The looks would certainly make sense then._ ’

“Yes, dear.” Aphrodite smiled. “I’m the goddess of love.”

“What’s going on?” Sally repeated, her mind a whirlwind of questions.

“We are on Olympus.” The girl with blond hair and grey eyes said.

“Olympus? Why?” Sally took a step back, panic settling in _. ‘Gods couldn’t possibly know about Percy, right? But then Lady Aphrodite mentioned Poseidon and there’s that boy…’_

“Calm down, Sally.” Sally turned towards the person calling out to her and suddenly it made sense why that voice was so familiar.

“Poseidon?” The blue-eyed woman gasped.

“Yup and don’t worry, it’s not like that.” God of the ocean had a good idea of what his lover was thinking.

“But then why am I on Olympus?”

“Before we answer that, how about we introduce ourselves.” The blond girl stated pulling forward the boy standing next to her. “I’m Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena and this is…” She nudged the boy forward, silently urging him to speak.

“Percy Jackson.” He gave her the same smile Poseidon had given her not a moment ago. “Hey, mom.”

“Percy…” Sally walked towards the said boy and caressed his cheek. Her motherly instincts were screaming _‘That’s my boy!’_ the moment she saw him but at the same time her eyes kept deceiving her. Her boy was twelve not sixteen, maybe even seventeen.

She took a deep breath and asked, “How?”

“I’m from future.” Percy admitted.

“Future.” Sally deadpanned.

“Yeah, I know how weird it sounds but apparently time travel is possible. How cool is that? Like Back To The Future!” Percy rambled. “Anyway, gods summoned you here to read some books.”

“Fates summoned a few demigods from different points in time to read about Seaweed Brain’s quests. We thought as Percy’s mother, you should be here too and Fates agreed so here we are.” Annabeth quickly clarified.

“Quests?” Sally took a guess and assumed ‘Seaweed Brain’ was Percy. A creative nickname considering who his father is.

“Y’know, killing some stupid monsters and saving the world.” Percy said nonchalantly.

Sally knew that Percy as a child of Poseidon would get sucked into the demigod world sooner or later and would have to go on dangerous quests but to hear the same from her son who came from the future was just unreal.

 _‘Okay,’_ Sally thought as she took a deep breath. _‘Gods and monsters are real and my own son is a child of a god so what’s a little time travel?’_

“So let me get this straight,” Sally exhaled. “Fates sent demigods back in time to read about Percy’s quests with gods and you want me to join you?”

“Pretty much.” Poseidon agreed.

“Yes and there’s that Ugly-no man in the throne room too.” Aphrodite scrunched her nose delicately at ‘Ugly-no man’.

“I almost forgot about him.” Percy frowned.

“Ugly-no man?” Sally inquired. “As in Ugliano? Gabe?”

“Yeah,” Annabeth answered. “Gods must be deciding on his punishment right now.”

“We read about that pig in the last chapter,” Aphrodite explained before Sally could go back to one-word questions. “We have decided to punish him for his actions.”

“That man deserves nothing less than the worst possible punishment.” Poseidon muttered.

“I’m sure Thalia and Reyna are cooking up something very evil.” Annabeth assured.

Sally glanced at Annabeth and started as she realized something. “I didn’t even introduce myself, how rude of me! I’m Sally Jackson.”

“We know, dear.” Aphrodite gushed. “Your son gave a very flattering description for you!”

“I see.” The older Jackson looked over to her son. “But you said you were reading about Percy’s quests, how come Gabe is in the book?”

“I’d like to know that myself.” Percy grumbled. “And the stupid book had to be based on my thoughts.”

“Well, we are following your quests.” Annabeth smirked. “Look at it this way, it’s a chance for us to get to know you better and finally learn what goes in your seaweed filled head.”

“Yes but why me?” Percy complained. “You were on almost all the quests with me! Why not you?”

“I think you know the answer to that.” Daughter of Athena said with the same knowing smirk.

“No, I don’t!” Percy paused. “Actually I do. Jeez, you must be rubbing off on me, Wise Girl.”

Percy _did_ know why books were based on his thoughts. Firstly, he was the child of the elder gods the prophecy spoke of and one of the main players in both the wars. Secondly, if the books followed Annabeth’s thoughts, nobody would understand anything. As much as Percy hated to admit it, books needed to follow someone simpler minded than a daughter of Athena.

“That’s a good thing.” Annabeth pointed out.

Percy grumbled incoherently.

“Well then, shall we go inside?” Poseidon asked as Sally convinced Aphrodite to give her a makeover only after lunch.

“Let’s go in!” Percy said enthusiastically. “I want to know what Gabe’s punishment is! If nothing else, I’d like to at least get in some good punches and-”

The sound of an explosion cut him off.

“Didn’t that come from where Hermes’s kids and Hephaestus are?” Poseidon asked.

Aphrodite hummed in agreement. “I can sense their excitement from all the way here.”

“I’ll check it out.” God of ocean dissipated into water vapor.

“Should I be worried?” Sally went to stand near Percy.

“If it involves Stolls, very.” Percy said.

“Your friends?”

“Children of Hermes. They’re both pranksters.” Percy nodded. “Speaking of friends, mom, I’d like to introduce you to Annabeth Chase, my girlfriend.”

“Percy!” Annabeth chuckled as her boyfriend made a big show of presenting her and did a courtesy bow.

“Girlfriend?” Sally asked amusement dancing in her eyes. “You said you were a daughter of Athena, didn’t you dear?”

“I did.” Daughter of Athena confirmed.

“I know right!” Aphrodite squealed. “You should have seen Athena’s reaction! She was so angry! But I’m sure Poseidon and Athena will get over their rivalry now that their children are together!”

Three non-immortals sweatdropped as the goddess of love kept on gushing about the ‘act of true love’ and ‘her new OTP’.

A few minutes later Poseidon returned with an amused look and eyes sparkling with mischief.

“They’ll be joining us shortly.”

That was all he said before marching towards the entrance of the palace.

As Aphrodite roped Sally into another conversation, Annabeth turned towards her boyfriend.

“It’s impressive how your mother took in everything without even blinking.” She said, following everyone back towards the throne room.

“Yeah, well it’s better to not think too much when it comes to gods.” Percy replied.

“But still, we told her we are from the future and she accepted it. We told her we are going to read about your quests with gods and she was like okay. We told her Gabe is here and we are going to punish him and she didn’t even blink.” Grey eyed blond observed. “And she is from before you started going on quests and she got used to everything.”

“When you put it like that,” Son of Poseidon grinned. “My mom is pretty impressive, isn’t she?”

“I already know that.” Annabeth rolled her eyes.

“Percy?” Sally raised a brown paper bag. “Would you like to have these jelly beans? I doubt I will be able to give these to the customer now.”

Somewhere in New York, a person sneezed as he looked around the candy shop he was standing in. “Why am I here again? That’s right to pay for the candies.” The man put some cash on the counter and left without ever taking his order.

“Jelly beans?” Percy took the bag. “Sweet! Dibs on all the blue ones.”

Just as they were about to enter the throne room, Aphrodite screeched, “Hold it!”

Poseidon raised an eyebrow.

“That Ugly-no man. Does he really stink as much as you say he does?” Goddess of love asked.

“Yes,” Percy answered. “I wasn’t exaggerating.”

Aphrodite nodded and proceeded to drown herself in her perfume till it was suffocating to even just stand near her.

“Perfect.” She smiled as she pushed open the throne room’s massive door. “Now his odor won’t reach me.”

True to her word, Gabe’s foul odor did not reach them, thanks to the heavy dose of perfume. But the same could not be said for the other occupants of the room. Nearly everyone in the room was wearing a face mask that was made by Hephaestus if the small piece of machinery hanging from the masks were anything to go by. Though, there were a few exceptions whose pride didn’t allow them to wear it (cough Zeus and Ares cough). As for the man emitting the odor, he was passed out cold on the floor. From fear, doubt. The killing intent in the room was hard to miss.

Everyone being busy shouting out the most gruesome punishment they could think of, nobody noticed the group enter. Except for Octavian. The boy wasn’t saying anything out of fear that they would use the same punishment against him. And out of the same fear, he did not tell anyone about their presence.

Percy sauntered in. “Hey, guys! How about we start from the beginning? I want to be a part of this too! And before that, I’d like you all to meet my mom,” He motioned towards Sally. “Mom, meet everyone.”

The group made their way towards the couches, Poseidon and Aphrodite along with them. As the pleasantries and introductions were exchanged among demigods, gods, and goddesses sitting on couches, the deities on the thrones were completely ignored. The only ones remaining on their thrones were Zeus, Hera, and Ares. Everyone else was already on couches.

“Now that we are all here, except Stolls, let’s start the discussion for that pig’s punishment.” Poseidon’s voice boomed.

“I say, make him bathe in lava first.” Hephaestus said in his gruff voice. “He stinks like Tartarus.”

Three certain demigods winced at the comparison.

“Good idea but won’t that kill him?” Leo asked. “And if he’s already dead, will it even affect him?”

“Yes,” Hades said. “If he is dead and we put it as a part of his punishment, he will feel all of it.”

“So how are we killing him?” Ares asked impatiently. _‘Killing is the best part, dammit.’_

“If you are going to punish him severely in Underworld then no need to torment him in his life too. His death will be swift and painless.” Hestia spoke up, her voice leaving no room for argument. “We are Olympians not monsters.”

“Tsk.” Ares sat back angrily.

“And before any of you ask,” Hades said with a pointed glare towards the god of war. “Once dead, I will not allow him to be brought back to life. That is against the rules and I have no reason to break them for this mortal. There are plenty of mortals with crimes worse than his and they get their appropriate punishment. In fact, the only reason I’ll be allowing such harsh punishment is because Poseidon requested me to.”

“And I appreciate you doing that.” Poseidon said sincerely.

“You’ll owe me one.” Ruler of Underworld said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I will.” God of ocean accepted.

“So to kill him, how about I turn him into a jackalope and set my hunters on him?” Artemis suggested. “They’ll grant him a quick and painless death. And it will bring us some entertainment too.”

As others considered her offer, Poseidon argued. “Niece, your idea is good but shouldn’t Percy or Sally be the one to kill him? They were the ones he harassed the most.”

“I’d rather not, actually.” Percy shifted uncomfortably. “Killing monsters is one thing but killing a mortal? Even if that mortal is Gabe.”

“Me too.” Sally agreed with her son.

Percy looked at his mother sideways. “Mom, you know, in my past you’ve already killed Gabe.”

“I did?”

“Well, not exactly. You put Medusa’s head in front of him and he saw her eyes and turned to sto-”

“Medusa?” Athena said surprised. “How did that happen?”

“Long story, I’m sure it will come up in this book and not the point right now.” Annabeth replied.

“Kelp Head, Aunt Sally, you sure you don’t want to kill him?” Thalia asked. “It won’t be much different from killing a monster and he deserves it.”

“Yeah, I don’t.” Percy confirmed. “And it is different, I mean, monsters are trying to kill us and they don’t really die so, y’know...”

Sally hummed in agreement.

“Since no one else has any better idea to kill him, I’ll turn him into a jackalope.” Artemis declared.

“Do it after we decide on his punishment.” Hades said.

“I don’t want to kill him myself either but I do want to get in a good punch before he dies.” Annabeth glared at the unconscious man.

A mummer of agreement rose from the demigods.

“Fine.” Hestia sigh. “All of you can punch him before Artemis turns him into a jackalope. But only once. I won’t allow any more than that.”

“It’s fine as long as I get to punch him.” Jason cracked his knuckles.

“Back to the punishment,” Reyna said. “He should be castrated.”

Thalia, Artemis, Annabeth, and Athena nodded seriously. The rest of the people in the room cringed, especially males, but agreed nonetheless.

“He likes to play poker, doesn’t he?” Dionysus asked rhetorically. “Then let him play poker for eternity. I’ll cruse him so he will never win another match again.”

“Yes, and each time he loses he has through another punishment.” Frank suggested. “Like being sewed in a sack full of angry weasels.”

“Angry weasels are scary.” Apollo nodded sagely.

Everyone gave them weird looks but nobody objected.

“We can also use Tantalus’s punishment for him.” Nico offered. “Having all your favorite food and drinks right in front of you but not being able to have anything.”

“Change that to the only thing is allowed to have is a limited amount of seawater.” Poseidon said.

Zeus gave him a weird look. “Why? Wouldn’t it be better to not give him anything at all?”

“Giving only seawater is brilliant!” Annabeth exclaimed. “The salt from the seawater would dehydrate him causing him to need to drink but the only drink he has is more seawater and eventually he'd have to give in and drink it and the same thing happens again.”

Poseidon beamed.

“It’s fitting.” Hazel mused. “Seawater.”

“While we are at it, after every punishment he finishes after losing a poker match, he gets a beer.” Percy looked at Annabeth and they had a silent conversation.

Annabeth nodded and continued for her boyfriend, ignoring the outrageous cries from their friends. “Only that beer is cocktailed with water from Cocytus in fifty-fifty ratio.”

“So when he should be happy to complete one punishment, he will only feel crippling misery.” Percy picked up where her girlfriend left.

“And naturally, the fifty percent beer we will give him is going to be the worst beer available in the world.” Annabeth elaborated, not missing a beat.

“And with the tiny brain he has, it will take him more than ten decades to understand what’s going on.” Percy finished.

They were met with a couple of dozen eyes silently staring holes in their heads.

“Um… guys?” Percy asked hesitantly.

No reply.

“I think we broke them.” Annabeth commented.

That broke the dam.

“How did you do that?”

“Can you read each other’s mind?”

“I should consider using River Cocytus’s water for other punishments too.”

“STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER, YOU STUPID SEA SPAWN!”

“Ah! Percabeth!”

“Using Cocytus’s water to ruin his only happy moments. Sounds good.”

“Those two have a nice dynamic.”

“I wonder when Kelp Head is finally going to propose to Annie.”

“They are so cute together!”

“Why can’t we be like that?”

After everyone calmed down, Hades called in to review the punishment.

“So Artemis will turn him into a jackalope and have her hunters hunt him and grant him a painless death. For his punishment, he will be castrated and will have to play poker for eternity but will never win. Every time he loses, he will have to go through another punishment like being sewed in a sack full of angry weasels.

After he completes the punishment for losing poker, he will be ‘rewarded’ with a beer. Only that beer is the worst beer available in the world and mixed with water from River Cocytus. He will also have the same punishment as Tantalus, with all his favorite foods and drinks in front of him but him not being able to have any of it, except he is only allowed to drink a limited amount of seawater. Anything else?”

“You forgot the first thing he will have to do is bathe in lava to get rid of the odor.” Leo reminded.

“He’ll have to walk through Fields of punishment every day, embarrassing himself in the worst possible ways.” Sally chimed in. 

“Where will he be playing poker and with whom?” Piper voiced an important question.

“He can play with skeletons from where he gets a clear view of Elysium.” Hazel said. “We can tell him that if he wins a single poker match, he will be allowed to go there.”

“But since he is cursed by Mr. D, he will never win.” Jason grinned. “Not to mention skeletons have the perfect poker face.”

“Anything else?” Hades asked again, looking up from his god pad where he was noting everything down, his voice sounding more like- _‘Please tell me nothing more.’_

When nobody added anything, he huffed. “This is going to be a pain to enact upon.”

“Not if you send it via Channel ten, Claim four. That way most of the things will get cleared in an instant, except the time in Channel. The only thing left will be River Cocytus which you can clear through Claim two. And setting everything should be easy enough since you are directly ordering it.” Nico said breezily.

“That…” Hades ran a simulation of the suggestion in his head. “Could work.”

“Nearly all the tasks are handed over to the already overworking first nine Channels but Channel ten is almost free all the time.” Nico continued in the same easy tone. “I don’t know why they use Claim eight as much as they do. Claim four gets things checked off quicker.”

“What are you going on about?” Thalia raised an eyebrow.

“We are talking about the procedure for assigning punishments,” Nico answered. “You already know there are three judges who decide where the dead go. They decide the punishment and sent its document to one of the Channels. There are ten groups called Channels which go over the assigned punishment to see the documents aren’t missing anything or aren’t doubles, that they are not some fakes or duplicates and do not go against the basic rules and there are no loopholes.

After they are sure nothing is out of order they pass it on to the Claims. Claims are a bunch of different categories and lists of what falls under what jurisdiction and some more detailed usage of rules of punishments. It also monitors the availability of space and resources required for the punishment. After the document is cleared from Claims, it goes to dad, who either signs it to make it official or burns it, er… I mean decline it and the process starts over again.”

“Did you just give me a crash course on who to assign punishments to dead?” Thalia blinked.

“Yes. You didn’t think it was as easy as the judges announcing the punishment the punished soul magically appearing in their punishment ground, did you?” Nico eyed his cousin.

“That’s exactly what I thought, to be honest.” Daughter of Zeus smiled innocently.

“I didn’t know assigning punishment to dead was so complex.” Zeus muttered under his breath but his brother heard him anyway.

“Well, maybe you would if you paid more attention to what I have to say during Winter Solstice meetings.” A scathing glare was directed towards the king of the gods. God of ocean followed the suit.

“Why are you two ganging up on me?!” King of god yelled.

“The real question here is,” The ruler of the Underworld looked at his son. “How do you know all that?”

“In the future, I helping you out for a while now.” His son answered.

 _‘He helps me?’_ Ruler of Underworld thought in surprise. _‘It is the first time a child of mine doesn’t have to live in hiding. I guess, that changes things.’_

“I see.” Hades nodded. “How many cases have you completed yet?”

“The number of cases I have completed, well, I’ve been helping out for almost a month now so,” Nico mused to himself. “I’d say it’s over 9000.”

There was a moment of silence as Hades nodded in appreciation before it was broken by ringing laughter.

“It’s over 9000!” Percy wheezed.

All the Greek demigods (except Nico), Rachel, Frank, Apollo, and Hermes were laughing along with the son of Poseidon.

“What’s so funny?” Nico frowned.

“Yeah, I don’t get it either.” Jason said, looking at his girlfriend.

“Is this some Greek joke?” Reyna asked.

“Frank knows it.” Hazel pointed out.

“It’s-it’s over 9000!” Piper repeated and broke into peals of laughter again.

Athena looked at the laughing demigods and gods (and a mortal) and frowned. “I don’t get what’s so funny about it.”

“Maybe because your sense of humor is dead, Athena!” Hermes shot back.

“It’s over 9000. It’s that popular internet meme, isn’t it?” Sally asked.

“Yup.” Leo replied popping the ‘p’.

“I still don’t get it.” Hazel said.

Rachel turned towards her to explain but Artemis spoke up before she could. “So would you all like to punch him now before I turn him into a jackalope or not?”

“I’ll explain later.” Rachel promised Hazel.

“Let’s do this!” Percy jumped to his feet, ready to punch the stuffing out of his ex-stepdad.

His proclamation was followed by a round of “Yeah!”

“I’ll wake him up. It will be more fun that way.” Apollo walked towards the still unconscious Gabe.

Hestia cleared her throat. “Apollo, just to remind you, this is only for demigods.”

Apollo pouted but didn’t complain. He did not forget to put on his face mask before approaching the stinking man. Ugly-no man was unconscious outside of Aphrodite’s perfume reach.

Gabe woke up with a groan. Apollo hastily backed away. Even Hephaestus’s mask couldn’t cover the stink.

“Whaz goin’ on?” He drunkenly stood up only for a certain daughter of Athena to introduce her fist to his face, breaking his nose and sending him sprawling backward.

“That was satisfying.” The blond said.

“Hey, guys! Want some jelly beans while we watch him get punched?” Percy waved his jelly bean bag. “But all the blue ones are mine.”

“I’ll have some,” Annabeth said as she returned to her seat beside her boyfriend. Percy passed on the bag to her.

“Mom, don’t you want to punch him too?” Percy asked as he stood up and cracked his knuckles.

“I do and I will after you all done.” Sally smiled.

Percy nodded and proceeded to punch his ex-stepdad in the face. Already broken nose got even more deformed.

He returned to see his girlfriend purposefully stealing some blue jelly beans. “Hey! Blue ones are mine!”

And the punches continued. By the end of them all, Gabe was a black and blue bruised mess. Even the sweet little Hazel and Sally had punched the Ugly-no man. Thalia, Reyna, Piper, and Hazel had, very subtly, kicked him where the sun doesn’t shine for extra measure. All the mortals except Octavian. He was too scared to do anything. Scared that they might use the same punishment for him too.

“Now,” Artemis tried hard not to sound too cheerful. “It’s finally time to turn him into a jackalope!”

Turning him into jackalope was a fun affair. In the end, instead of Artemis’s hunters hunting Ugly-no jackalope, it became an archery competition between Apollo and Artemis. Ugly-no jackalope was allowed to try and hide somewhere in the garden while the twin archers had to kill him in just one shot. That shot had to kill him instantly and painlessly. The winner would later get an extra-large batch of Sally’s blue chocolate chip cookies.

The chase was short but provided some entertainment as Gabe tried to walk like a crab and climb a tree. But with the tiny brain he had, what else could be expected of him?

In the end, both the Olympians tied as their shots land precisely at the same second.

“So, Ms. Jackson, what did you think of the show?” Apollo flashed Sally his most charming smile. “Did you like it?”

“Yeah! Sure.” Percy’s mother laughed nervously at the bad attempt at flirting.

“Would you like to go out with-” The sun god was cut off by Percy and Poseidon yelling at him.

“STAY AWAY FROM HER!”

“Now that everything’s over with, let’s start reading again.” Zeus grumbled.

“Actually,” Annabeth started hopefully. “We have already taken such a long break, how about we talk to George and Martha right now instead of waiting for lunch?”

“Yes,” Athena agreed with her daughter. “We can learn more-”

“Absolutely not!” Zeus frowned. “You can talk to them during lunch break.”

Hestia raised the book. “Who would like to read?”

“I’ll read.” Sally volunteered. As the goddess of hearth handed her the book, the text inside changed from Greek to English.

“What chapter are you on?” The candy shop owner asked.

“Chapter 4.” Reyna supplied.

Sally nodded in thanks. “ **Chapter- 4 My Mom Teaches Me Bullfighting.** ”

“Wait, what?” Sally interrupted herself. “What’s going on? Can someone please give me a summary of what I’ve missed till now?”

At that moment, the door of the throne room burst open and two boys strolled in.

“We’re back!” They chorused. “Did anyone miss us? What did we miss?”

“Travis,” Annabeth narrowed her eyes. “Is that glitter in your hair?”

“What?” Travis immediately combed his hair with fingers in hope of removing it. “Not at all!”

“You better not be up to something.” Reyna glared at Stolls.

They chuckled nervously, “We would never.”

“So what did we miss?” Connor asked before his eyes fell on Percy’s mom.

“Ms. Jackson!” He exclaimed. “It’s nice to finally meet you!”

“Percy talks about you all the time!” Travis bowed, his brother following the suit.

“Nice to meet you too!” Sally greeted. “You two must be Stolls.”

“Indeed we are.” Travis puffed out his chest. “The renowned pranksters.”

“Ignore them,” Percy advised. “They have a flair for dramatics.”

“Ahem.” Zeus cleared his throat. “If you are done, let’s start reading.”

Stolls shared a quick look with Poseidon and settled down. Poseidon’s eyes shined with the same amusement and mischief as it did after he returned from checking up on Stolls and Hephaestus. Apollo and Hermes caught this and grinned to show they were in on the plan too.

“What took you both so long?” Annabeth demanded. “And why didn’t you invite me to build Demigod Quarters? I could have helped!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” They replied, whistling innocently.

Annabeth huffed and glared at them. Rachel and Reyna provided a short summary of all the previous chapters and everything with Gabe.

“Hold on,” Connor said. “If he died as a jackalope, how will he go to Underworld?”

“As a human or a jackalope?” Travis elaborated.

“As a human,” Hades grunted. “Poseidon, you so owe for this. Creating the documents is still going to be a pain, you know.”

Nico winced in sympathy.

Poseidon nodded. “Yes, I’ll owe you.”

“STOP IGNORING ME!” Zeus boomed. “Let’s start reading already.”

“If you’re in such a hurry, why don’t you read?” Poseidon looked at his brother shrewdly. Hades joining in on the glare.

“STOP GANGING UP ON ME!”

“MAKE UP YOUR MIND!” His two brothers yelled back. “YOU CAN ONLY CHOOSE ONE!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to apologize if you thought Gabe's punishment wasn't harsh enough. And to those who wanted Percy or Sally to kill him.
> 
> It seemed illogical to go beyond this. As it was said in the chapter, there are many people who have committed crimes worse than this and they probably wouldn't get punishment as harsh as Tantalus or Sisyphus (Gabe got it harsher than them). But even if we make an exception for Gabe, I can't see Hades breaking rules to bring him back to life just so they could kill him again. He didn't break the rules for his own children and lover.
> 
> And the main genre of this story is humor, not angst. Sorry!
> 
> And for 'it's over 9000', so sorry. I just couldn't resist.
> 
> Nico's crash course might or might not be important later on. I haven't decided yet. There's a fifty-fifty chance.
> 
> See you later and don't forget to comment!


	7. The Rain, The Mother, and The Bull-Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word Count: 8685
> 
> For my update schedule, it basically gonna be something like this: One chapter a month, Two chapters a month if I'm lucky and One chapter in two months if I'm unlucky.

In the end, three brothers had to stop arguing when Sally started reading.

“ **Chapter-4 My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting**.” Sally frowned at the title again.

“Uh… Mom?” Percy started. “I think it would be best if you don’t read this chapter.”

“Why not?” Sally asked, dread pooling her stomach.

“Oh, you’ll see.” Percy laughed nervously as he tucked the book out of her hands, giving it to her girlfriend.

His girlfriend raised an eyebrow, “And why can’t you read?”

“Because I don’t want to?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Telling you?”

Annabeth raised an eyebrow as the rest of them snickered.

In a moment of confidence, Octavian loudly declared- “I’ll read.”

When all the eyes in the room landed on him, he wasn’t so confident anymore.

“I’ll read?” He squeaked.

“What’s up with everyone just asking questions?” Reyna asked. “Ugh! Now I’m doing it.”

Sally looked at the trembling boy and smiled encouragingly. “I don’t believe you introduced yourself before.”

The Augur gave a terrified squeak in response.

“He’s just Octavian.” Thalia said shrewdly. “You don’t need to know him, Aunt Sally.”

“JUST OCTAVIAN?” The blond in question screeched. “I am First Cohort’s Centurion, the most prestigious Cohort in Twelfth Legion! The Augur of Camp Jupiter! I am a legacy of Apollo blessed with the gift of prophecy!”

The sun god winced. The rest of them started.

“I’ll read.” Reyna said quietly.

“But-”

Octavian was cut off by a harsh glare.

“Take this as your warning, Centurion.” Daughter of Bellona said calmly.

So naturally, it came off as a petrifying death threat to the Augur. It didn’t help that the moment he had opened his mouth, everyone else had started radiating their killer intent.

 _‘What am I getting a warning for?’_ He wanted to ask but wisely kept his mouth shut this time.

Annabeth passed on the book to Reyna as she warily watched the Stoll brothers whispering furiously among themselves.

“I’m not going to repeat the chapter name again.” Reyna muttered before she started reading.

**We tore through the night … she kept her foot on the gas.**

“That’s how you should drive.” Ares nodded in approval.

**Every time there was a flash of lightning … insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet trousers.**

“Shag-carpet trousers!” Travis exclaimed.

Connor turned towards his brother, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

They both exchanged a grin that would have teachers screaming ‘No, you don’t!’ and sending them to detention even if they don’t do anything.

Reyna cleared her throat with a pointed glare at the brothers.

**But, no, the smell was … field trips to the petting zoo – lanolin, like from wool.**

**The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

**All I could think to say was, ‘So, you and my mum… know each other?’**

“Nice ice-breaker.” Thalia rolled her eyes.

“To be fair, what else was I supposed to say?” Percy defended himself.

Before Thalia could reply Reyna continued reading but not before throwing them the same glare she directed towards Stolls. Because Reyna does not appreciate being interrupted.

**Grover’s eyes flitted to the rear view mirror … we’ve never met in person. But she knew I was watching you.’**

“I did know someone was watching you.” Sally confirmed.

“That’s kind of stalkerish now that you think of it.” Piper muttered.

**‘Watching me?’**

**‘Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay … he added hastily. ‘I _am_ your friend.’**

“Of course he is.” Percy nodded sagely.

**‘Um… what _are_ you, exactly?’**

“That’s rude, Seaweed Brain.” Annabeth scolded her boyfriend.

“Sorry!” Son of Poseidon raised his hands in surrender. “But it’s already happened.”

He got two glares directed at him. One from his girlfriend and one from the person reading.

**‘That doesn’t matter right now.’**

**‘It doesn’t matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-’**

“Donkey?” Dionysus looked up from his magazine, scandalized.

“Only you, Percy!” Stoll brothers laughed.

“That is quite rude, Percy.” Sally scolded lightly.

“I know,” The green-eyed youth groaned. “But it has already happened.”

“Be glad Coach Hedge isn’t here.” Nico said.

“Hn. Fauns are half goat.” Octavian for some reason thought it would be wise to open his mouth. “Even toddlers know that.”

Perhaps remembering what had happened the previous times he had tried to bestow his sagely wisdom or the last time made some comments on fauns, he immediately tried to shrink on the couch. And tried even harder, when he felt everybody’s gaze on him.

“Did he just…?” Connor started.

“Say something..?” His brother continued.

“Sensible?” Leo ended and three of them high-fived.

“Are we sure he’s real?” Frank asked.

Everyone else nodded, their brows furrowed, and looks of genuine curiosity and concern plastered across their faces.

“I’ll go check!” Piper exclaimed cheerfully as she walked over to the Augur. Naturally, the sight of her walking towards him, left him shaking.

Piper did the third thing that came to her mind to see if he was real. She slapped him. Hard.

The first thing she thought was to kill him. The second thing she thought was to sucker punch him into next week. But she couldn’t kill him because if he turned out to be real by some miracle, it would complicate things. And she couldn’t sucker punch him because as obtuse as Her Annoying Bovine Majesty was she did have a point when she said Octavian shouldn’t be sleeping throughout the reading. Hence, the third-best thing.

_Smack!_

Piper frowned as she flexed her fingers, “Well, he seems solid enough. So he’s definitely not a ghost.”

“But he could still be an imposter.” Hazel pointed out.

What proceeded was everyone slapping Octavian, claiming they are not actually hurting him intentionally or unintentionally if they don’t even know if he is real. After slapping the blond more than a dozen times, they were still not sure if he was real.

“Isn’t this all a little too much?” Sally asked. “Satyrs being half-goat isn’t exactly a secret.”

It _was_ too much. Obviously, anyone who lived in their world would know satyrs are half goats. Even dumb people like Octavian.

“But he’s Octavian!” Percy exclaimed. “He murders everyone’s pet pillows and blackmails them into voting for him!”

“You’re still not over that?” Rachel rolled her eyes. (“Don’t insult Perry like that! Octavian murdered him brutally!” Percy wailed.)

“He tried to kill Leo to stop him from trying to kill Gaea.” Nico added. “Because he thought she would kill all Greeks but not a single Roman.”

“And he-” Frank was cut off by Zeus.

“Hold it!” He thundered. “Gaea?”

“Wait, he tries to kill me?” Leo asked. “Does he succeed?”

Hermes sigh. “Seriously, what’s up with everyone asking so many questions? Which I’m doing now.”

“Yes, Valdez, he does kill you.” Nico answered calmly.

Everyone aside from Stolls, Rachel, Annabeth, Percy, Thalia, and Nico gasp.

“Leo dies?” Piper repeats, disbelief coloring her voice.

“But-but I’m too hot to die!” Leo mumbles.

“It’s true!” Percy sighs dramatically. “We mourned for weeks!”

Annabeth sigh as Thalia and Rachel try to hide their growing grins. Stolls decided to join in with Nico and Percy to add some more dramatics. Zeus and most other gods were ignored as the king of the gods kept on yelling something about not being ignored.

Sally frowns, confused. _‘If one of Percy’s friends really died, he wouldn’t be joking around like this. But he also won’t joke around about said friend’s death. Something must have happened.’_

Reyna, Frank, and Hazel arrived at the same conclusion. But Jason and Piper did not. Neither did Hephaestus. But that was probably because of them not knowing him for that long.

“Oh, if I could only kill you.” The blacksmith glowered.

Piper and Jason, in all their murderous glory, stood in front of Octavian. Leo was still mumbling something about being too hot to die.

“You-you can’t hurt me!” Octavian cried as he clutched the note from Fates. “Fates have said you can’t hurt legacies!”

“Yes but that note was only addressed to gods and goddesses, not demigods or mortals.” Jason pointed out as he cracked his knuckles.

“Try reading the note again.” Piper suggested with a charming smile that promised death. She was quite happy that she picked it up from Annabeth when she saw the blond break into a cold sweat.

* * *

_Dear gods and goddesses,_

_You are not allowed to kill or hurt any of the gods, goddesses, demigods, or their legacies. This includes throwing dangerous weapons around like toys because of some tantrums._

_Fates_

* * *

“It’s true.” Frank muttered. “We don’t need to keep coming up with excuses to beat him up.”

“You knew about this all along?” Percy cried. “Bro, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Just like Thalia.” Apollo noted.

Jason was about to reply but Annabeth cut in. “Jason, Piper, calm down. Leo dies but he comes back to life. Save the beating for later.”

“Leo comes back to life?” Piper asked, wide-eyed. “How?”

“The questions again.” Rachel sigh.

“Physician's Cure.” Annabeth answered Piper.

Hephaestus sigh in relief and made a mental note to send flowers and the latest model of Hephaestus TV set to Apollo’s son.

“Aha!” Leo exclaimed. “I knew I was too hot to die!”

“PHYSICIAN’S CURE?!” Zeus thundered as he turned towards Apollo. “This all your son’s fault!”

“Cheating death.” Hades said darkly. “I knew it was a mistake to let Zeus make Asclepius a god.”

“If what the demigods are saying is true then my son saved us all by helping others kill Gaea!” Hephaestus protested. “A deed worthy of a hero! Why shouldn’t he be revived?”

“That’s right,” Apollo said quickly. “It isn’t Asclepius’s fault!”

“I agree with them, Zeus.” Poseidon said calmly, knowing it would get on his brother’s nerves. “The boy deserves a reward. If grandmother somehow woke up, giants must have been revived too. And if I remember correctly, after the Giant war, you made Dionysus a god, an Olympian no less. So what does it matter if the boy was revived?”

“Unless the favoritism only extends to your children.” Hades took the opening his brother left.

“That isn’t true!” Zeus frowned.

“Really? You turned Thalia into a tree so she wouldn’t die.” Hades pointed out. “And made Jason,” He waved towards the Jason present in the room. “Hera’s champion so she wouldn’t kill him.”

“And you offered immortality so many of your demigod children. Heracles, Dionysus, Britomartis, and need I go on?” Poseidon asked innocently.

“Britomartis wasn’t me!” The king of gods protested. “That was Artemis.”

“You didn’t let me offer immortality Theseus.” Poseidon countered.

Dionysus frowned at the hero’s name. “He didn’t deserve it.”

“And Heracles did?”

“Heracles was a true hero!” Zeus cried.

“He had his fair share of transgressions and you know it.”

“What about Minos?” Hades quipped up. “Despite his horrible actions you forced me to make him one of the Judges of the Dead.”

Everyone watched as Poseidon and Hades, once again, ganged up on Zeus.

“How the Hera did they get that distracted?” Piper asked. “I thought the point was about Octavian killing Leo and him coming back to life.”

“No, the original topic was Octavian’s stupidity.” Percy points out. “Leo’s death was something Nico bought up.”

“Ignore them.” Hermes advised.

Annabeth sigh, “Jason, Piper, as I was saying, save your anger. There will be plenty more time you will want to kill Octavian.”

“We can have a little sparring match after lunch to vent out.” Hazel suggested.

“That is an excellent idea.” Reyna approved as a mummer of agreement rose up.

“Last problem.” Thalia pointed towards Octavian. “Are we sure he’s real?”

Gods and demigods alike sweatdropped as they looked at the sobbing blond who was looking at the piece of paper clutched in his hand with a betrayed expression.

“Yeah,” Nico said. “I think that’s him.”

“So how long do their arguments usually last?” Sally asked taking everything in a stride and looking at the still yelling brothers.

“They should be done soon enough.” Artemis sigh and punched her brother on the head as he started making another flirtatious comment.

“If only they’d eat more cereal…” Demeter grumbled, shooting Hades a stink eye.

Just as Artemis predicted, the tree brothers quieted down soon enough. Reyna took the opportunity to start reading again before the three of them could get ready for round two of their argument.

**‘It doesn’t matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-’**

Reyna quickly glared at everyone to make sure nobody interrupted her again.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty _‘Blaa-ha-ha!’_**

**I’d heard him make that sound … assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was … an irritated bleat.**

**‘Goat!’ he cried.**

**‘What?’**

**‘I’m a _goat_ from the waist down.’**

**‘You just said it didn’t matter.’**

Everyone snickered.

“You see Percy, it stated mattering when…” Travis grinned.

“You called a satyr a half donkey.” Connor finished.

Percy groaned, “I get it already! But I didn’t know all that stuff back then!”

 **_‘Blaa-ha-ha!_ ** **There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!’**

“Coach Hedge would.” Jason agreed.

“No.” Leo shook his head mournfully. “He would make you do a hundred pushups and hundred sit-ups and _then_ he would trample you.”

“All the while calling you a cupcake,” Nico added darkly.

“And waving his baseball bat and trying to imitate Chuck Norris.” Piper continued.

“And singing his own violence-filled version of Pokémon theme song.” Frank remembered all the times he had caught him singing that.

Percy shuddered at the thought. Needless to say, he was very happy that Coach Hedge wasn’t sitting there with them.

“Who is Coach Hedge?” Sally looked at his son’s pale face.

“He is a very scary and violent hundred years old satyr who like yell ‘die’, wave his baseball bat, watch cage matches, and blow things up all the while calling everyone ‘cupcake’.” Percy answered. “Well, not a hundred, he’s older than that but whatever.”

“That is a very accurate description.” Leo nodded sagely.

Before anyone could say anything else, Reyna started reading.

**‘Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like… Mr Brunner’s myths?’**

**‘Were those old ladies … a _myth,_ Percy? Was Mrs Dodds a myth?’**

**‘So you _admit_ there was a Mrs Dodds!’**

**‘Of course.’**

**‘Then why-’**

**‘The less you knew, the fewer monsters you’d attract … be perfectly obvious.**

“In all fairness,” Thalia muttered. “It should be.”

Artemis nodded.

**‘We put Mist over the humans’ eyes … no good. You started to realize who you are.’**

“To be honest,” Percy said. “I don’t think I did.”

“You did, you started realizing that unconsciously.” His girlfriend explained.

**‘Who I – wait a minute, what do you mean?’**

“That must have been confusing.” Hazel said sympathetically.

**The weird bellowing noise rose up … chasing us was still on our trail.**

Sally shifted uneasily and took comfort in the fact her son was sitting right in front of her, alive and unharmed.

**‘Percy,’ my mom said, ‘there’s … not enough time. We have to get you to safety.’**

**‘Safety from what? Who’s after me?’**

**‘Oh, nobody much,’ Grover said … Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions.’**

Sally inhaled sharply. Nico sigh. Poseidon side-eyed his brother dangerously.

Hades offered his brother a blank look which could be translated from ‘ _I was angry you broke the oath and wanted revenge._ ’ to ‘ _Don’t get mad at me. We’re supposed to gang up on Zeus, remember? Not the other way around!_ ’

Reyna ignored them all and continued reading.

**‘Grover!’**

**‘Sorry, Mrs Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?’**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening … I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

“For some reason,” Annabeth looked at her boyfriend with an amused smile. “I highly doubt that.”

Percy raised his hands in surrender as the rest of them laughed.

**My mom made a hard left … PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

Sally sigh in relief. “Camp Half-Blood.”

Everyone who had been to the camp before smiled.

**‘Where are we going?’ I asked.**

**‘The summer camp I told you about.’ My mother’s voice … place your father wanted to send you.’**

**‘The place you didn’t want me to go.’**

**‘Please, dear … Try to understand. You’re in danger.’**

**‘Because some old ladies cut yarn.’**

Reyna paused and looked at Percy in disbelief. “You make it sound so simple. So harmless.”

“I know, right?!” Percy beamed.

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

“You’re the one who told me to be more optimistic!”

“But he’s right.” Connor said.

“Everyone’s panicking because…” Travis began.

“Some old ladies cut yarn!” They both ended in unison.

Rachel whacked them both on the head and turned to Leo to ask about her weaponized blue hairbrush’s progress. Octavian whimpered at the mention of the deadly weapon.

Annabeth shook her head fondly as Thalia said, grinning- “That’s just so like you, Kelp Head.”

Anyone who paid close enough attention would notice how their smiles were the tiniest bit strained.

**‘Those weren’t old ladies,’ Grover said. ‘Those were the Fates … They only do that when you’re about to… when someone’s about to die.’**

“Way to mess up, Goat Boy.” Thalia smiled drily.

**‘Whoa. You said _“you”.’_**

“Of course you’d pick that up.” Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**‘No I didn’t. I said _“someone”.’_**

**‘You meant “you”. As in me.’**

**‘I meant you, like “someone”. Not you, _you.’_**

“Wait, did anyone understand that?” Apollo asked.

“And he’s the god of poetry.” Artemis mumbled under her breath.

“I didn’t understand that either.” Travis said.

“He said ‘you’ but meant it in ‘someone’ way?” Connor asked.

“He didn’t mean it in ‘you, you’ form.” Leo's statement came off more like a question.

“Never mind all that!” Apollo smiled cheerfully. “I feel a haiku coming on!”

“NO!” Every single occupant of the room shouted (except Octavian- he gave another terrified squeak).

Apollo pouted. Reyna continued reading.

**‘Boys!’ my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel … a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

“Which monster is it?” Sally asked dejectedly, almost not wanting to know the answer.

“You’ll see.” Percy laughed nervously, the same way he did when he took the book from her and gave it to Annabeth.

“This is the reason you didn’t want me reading this chapter, isn’t it?”

“Maybe. But don’t worry! I kill the monster and nobody dies!”

“Nobody dies?” Annabeth asked with an innocent smile.

They both exchange a knowing glance.

Sally thinks back to the chapter title.

 _My Mom Teaches Me Bullfighting_.

 _Bullfighting_.

Sally could only think of several monsters that could somehow relate to bulls but a few stuck out. And she could only hope she was wrong.

**‘What was that?’ I asked.**

**‘We’re almost there,’ my mother said … Another mile. Please. Please. Please.’**

“Mom!” Percy exclaimed. “You broke the first Law of Percy Jackson!”

“What?” Sally raised an eyebrow.

“You know, never jinx yourself!”

“First law of Percy Jackson, Seaweed Brain?” Annabeth asked. “You’re naming that after yourself?”

“Yeah, it should be First Law of Being a Demigod or something.” Thalia said.

“No!” Leo exclaimed. “We’ll call it First Law of Leo Bad Boy Supreme Super-sized McShizzle Flaming Valdez!"

“It’s too long, Repair Boy.” Piper rolled her eyes.

“And no one’s ever going call you that either.” Jason added.

“But I am the one who created it!” Percy protested. “So I get to name it!”

“Don’t be so self-centered, Percy.” Frank grinned.

“Well, I already created and named it.” Percy huffed. “The First Law of Percy Jackson: never jinx yourself.”

“So is there a second law too?” Hazel asked. 

Gods watched on in amazement as demigods, yet again, completely and readily ignored them.

Unfortunately, Hazel didn’t get her answer because Reyna started reading again.

**I didn’t know where _there_ was … anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness … I thought about Mrs Dodds … She really _hadn’t_ been human. She’d meant to kill me.**

**Then I thought about Mr Brunner… and the sword he had thrown me.**

**Before I could ask Grover about that … There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling _boom!_ and our car exploded.**

“What?” Poseidon panicked. “What happened?”

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried and hosed down all at the same time.**

“Do you have to be so descriptive?” Hazel asked.

Percy sigh, “I didn’t write the book.”

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver’s seat and said, ‘Ow.’**

**‘Percy!’ my mom shouted.**

**‘I’m okay…’**

**I tried to shake off the daze … The car hadn’t really exploded. We’d swerved into a ditch.**

“How?” Poseidon demanded to no one in particular.

Sally clutched her son’s hand.

**Our driver’s-side doors were wedged … open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

God of the ocean narrowed his eyes.

**Lightning ... We’d been blasted right off the road.**

“ZEUS!” Poseidon yelled at the top of his lungs. “HOW DARE YOU!”

“WELL, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT ME TO DO?” King of gods yelled back. “YOU BROKE THE OATH!”

“SO DID YOU!” God of Ocean raged. “TWICE!”

Hades wanted to join in and yell at Zeus too but kept out of it because he knew he must have been the one to send the monster after his nephew.

Hera alternated glaring between her husband, Thalia, and Percy.

Other gods and goddesses sigh and shook their heads in resignation.

Sally clutched her son’s hand so hard Percy was sure he would have to get it checked by Apollo after the chapter.

‘ _He’s fine. He’s safe_.’ She kept chanting in her mind to assure herself.

Nico leaned over to Reyna and whispered, “I think you should continue reading. Otherwise, they’ll keep going on forever.”

**Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. ‘Grover!’**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth … half barnyard animal, you’re my best friend and I don’t want you to die!’**

“I don’t even know if that’s rude or sweet.” Hermes said.

“Let’s go with sweet.” Percy suggested.

**Then he groaned, ‘Food,’ and I knew there was hope.**

Everyone burst out laughing and the tension eased down.

“Goat Boy.” Thalia smiled fondly.

**‘Percy,’ my mother said, ‘we have to…’ Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning … figure lumbering towards us on the shoulder of the road**.

And the tension was back.

Sally looked over to her son to console herself that he was alive and safe.

**The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette … His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

Sally now had a good idea of who the monster was and was desperately wishing to be wrong.

A few other gods who seemed to be thinking along the same lines looked just as worried.

Hades sigh.

**I swallowed hard. ‘Who is –’**

**‘Percy,’ my mother said, deadly serious. ‘Get out of the car.’**

**My mother threw herself against the driver’s-side door … hole in the roof. It might’ve been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

“Don’t go that way.” Leo advised.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Percy smiled.

“No problem, Water Boy.”

Percy’s eye twitched at the nickname.

Unfortunately, Reyna started reading and he didn’t get to retort back.

**‘Climb out the passenger’s side! … Do you see that big tree?’**

“Hey look, Thalia, you’re mentioned.” Nico teases his cousin.

**_‘What?’_ **

**Another flash of lightning … a huge, White House Christmas-tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

“Flattering description, Kelp Head.” Thalia commented drily. “Thanks.”

“I try.” Percy thanked.

“Grover was scrawny and cripple and Thalia is a big Christmas Tree.” Annabeth looked at her boyfriend. “You better give me a good description, Seaweed Brain.”

“I’m sure I will but in case I don’t, just try to remember I didn’t write this book?” ‘Seaweed Brain’ requested.

“I’ll try.” Daughter of Athena smiled innocently. “But no promises.”

“Will you judo flip me if I don’t?”

“Maybe.”

Reyna cleared her throat. “If two are done flirting, I’d like to continue.”

Aphrodite was squealing while Athena was visibly trying her best not to kill ‘sea spawn’. Stoll and Thalia were pretending to gag while Hazel averted her eyes from the public show of affection.

Sally took a moment to appreciate how happy her son seemed.

**‘That’s the property line,’ my mom said … Yell for help. Don’t stop until you reach the door.’**

“Not gonna happen.” Frank muttered.

Hazel nodded. “He wouldn’t leave Grover or Mrs. Jackson behind.”

“Just call me Sally, dear.” Sally smiled at the daughter of Pluto.

**‘Mom, you’re coming, too.’**

“So predictable.” Rachel sigh.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**‘No!’ I shouted. ‘You _are_ coming with me. Help me carry Grover.’**

**‘Food!’ Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The man with the blanket … snorting noises.**

And the tension was back full force.

**As he got closer, I realized … was his head. And the points that looked like horns…**

“Please don’t tell me it’s Minotaur.” Sally turned to her son wide-eyed.

“Uh… it is, actually.” Percy mumbled almost inaudibly but Sally caught it anyway.

He continued, louder. “Don’t worry, don’t worry! It's fine, he gets stabbed by his own horn and dies.”

“Hades.” Poseidon doesn’t yell but his voice sends a chill down everyone’s spines. “You sent Minotaur after my son?”

“I haven’t done it yet,” Hades replies calmly. “And I have every right to be angry. Both you and Zeus broke the oath that you two forced me to take.”

“Fair enough.” Poseidon grits out. “But sending Minotaur after a twelve-year-old?”

“Dad, Uncle Hades had a good reason to be angry.” Percy interjects. “Even other than the oath.”

“But-”

“No, trust me, you’ll see. And besides, mom, Grover, and I are still alive. We don’t die.”

Poseidon frowns but accepts the answer. Hades looks at his nephew curiously.

Sally purses her lips, not sure how to feel.

 _Worried_ that her baby could be hurt or worse- killed by those monsters?

 _Scornful_ that he will have to keep on fighting just to survive?

 _Shameful_ that her selfish decision to keep him close to her nearly got him multiple times?

 _Sad_ that her son has gone through so much that he can talk about killing Minotaur at age of twelve so nonchalantly?

 _Angry_ that the same god who allowed them to give Gabe his harsh punishment sends monsters to kill her precious son?

 _Grateful_ that he doesn’t hate or blame her for his difficult life?

 _Happy_ that he finally looks like he found his place despite the dangers?

 _Proud_ that he’s so strong and kind?

Percy squeezes her hand and gives his signature carefree lop-sided grin.

“Don’t worry, mom.” He said. “Nobody dies, except the Minotaur.”

Sally smiles despite herself. “I’m your mom, I’ll _always_ worry about you.”

Percy’s grin widens and he offers her the miraculously-not-finished jelly beans bag. “I saved a few blue ones.”

Sally chuckled as she accepted the offer. _‘For now, I think I’ll settle on being proud.’_

Reyna looked at them and silently asked if she should give them a few more minutes. Sally shook her head and motioned for her to continue reading.

**‘He doesn’t want _us_ ,’ my mother told me. ‘He wants you. Besides, I can’t cross the property line.’**

**‘But…’**

**‘We don’t have time, Percy. Go. Please.’**

**I got mad, then – mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,**

Tension in the air eased down again as everyone started laughing.

**at the thing … lumbering towards us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

**I climbed across Grover … ‘We’re going together. Come on, Mom.’**

**‘I told you-’**

**‘Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover.’**

“Your fatal flaw,” Athena said suddenly. “It’s personal loyalty, isn’t it?”

Percy nodded.

“That’s an admirable flaw to have.” Demeter praised, without any mention of cereal much to everyone’s surprise.

“And dangerous.” Zeus added, glaring at the son of Poseidon.

“Why is loyalty dangerous?” Hazel asked.

“A person having fatal flaw of personal loyalty would go to any lengths necessary to save a friend.” Athena answered. “Even if it means sacrificing the world.”

“Say in a war, if he isn’t prepared to make the decisions needed, the entire tide of battle could go sideways.” Ares explained. “An enemy could easily take advantage of that.”

“It is still a virtuous flaw.” Aphrodite insisted.

"The most dangerous flaws are good in moderation." Hera patronized.

Percy’s eye twitched as he remembered how Athena had said the same thing to him all those years ago.

Reyna took one look at Percy’s face and knew he was going to say or do something very stupid and land himself in trouble. A quick exchange of glance with Annabeth confirmed her suspicions. So she started reading before anyone could make any further comments and threw a _You-Can-Thank-Me-Later_ look towards Percy.

**I didn’t wait for her answer … I couldn’t have carried him very far if my mom hadn’t come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover’s arms … through wet waist-high grass.**

“Does anyone cut it?” Demeter asked before adding- “They all need to eat more cereal!”

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look … triceps and a bunch of other ‘ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin.**

There were a few raised eyebrows and shudders at the description.

**He wore no clothes except underwear – I mean, bright white Fruit-of-the-Looms,**

“Are you kidding me?” Thalia’s jaw dropped open.

She wasn’t the only one.

“Nope.”

Hazel averted her eyes from the book as if it had done something very indecent and fanned her red face.

**which would’ve been funny … got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of muscle … cruel black eyes, and horns**

“Do you have to be so descriptive?” Hazel asked again, throwing the monster’s mental image her traitorous brain conjured up in the mental trash can.

“But I didn’t write the book!”

“It’s based on your thoughts.” Annabeth pointed out.

Percy shut up and started contemplating if he loved or hated that his girlfriend was always right.

**enormous black and white horns … points you just couldn’t get from an electric sharpener.**

“Of course you’d compare it with that.” Rachel sigh.

**I recognized the monster, all right.**

Half the demigods gaped at Percy.

“You…” Connor started.

“Actually…” Travis continued.

“Recognized…” Leo joined in.

“It?” They all ended together.

“Hey, I’m not that stupid!” Percy protested. “How many other monsters are there with the top half of a bull?”

Everyone in the room started at Percy.

“What is wrong with everyone today?” Rachel cried. “First Octavian says something sensible and now Percy too?”

“Don’t lump me in with that idiot!”

“Ah, my bad! Even you’re not that stupid.”

“I’m not stupid at all!”

“Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth cut in. “You couldn’t tell the difference between hubris and humus.”

Athena looked scandalized. ‘ _I will kill the scum! No, I will turn him into a cockroach! He doesn’t deserve to be in the same country as my daughter! He is so stupid!_ ’

“Annie, I think you’re setting the bar a little high there.” said Thalia.

“Fine. How about when you tried to fit your sand dollar in a vending machine in the school cafeteria? Or when you called Grover half donkey?”

“About the Grover thing, I told you I was in shock and I know satyrs are half goat!” Percy hid his face in his hands. “And I didn’t know what the Hera I was supposed to do with that sand dollar, okay?”

“You said Lord Poseidon said that you would know when to spend it.”

“But he also said that I could buy stuff with it!”

“Yes, he gave you the sand dollar so you could buy snacks.”

“Come on! I knew I shouldn’t have told you about that.”

Hera’s eye was twitching at her name being used as a curse once again. Poseidon was looked lost. Aphrodite was squealing something about her new OTP and Athena was once again visibly restraining herself from killing the sea spawn. Demigods were looking at the bickering couple with varying expressions.

“They are doing it again.” Nico sigh.

“Can they read each other’s mind?” Hazel asked.

Reyna sigh in resignation that she was going to be kept interrupted no matter what. _‘I am not volunteering to read again.’_

**He had been in … stories Mr Brunner told us. But he couldn’t be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. ‘That’s –’**

**‘Pasiphae’s son,’ my mother said.**

Gods looked at Sally approvingly.

“You’ve done your research.” Athena noted.

**‘I wish I’d known how badly they want to kill you.’**

**‘But a he’s a min-’**

**‘Don’t say his name,’ she warned. ‘Names have power.’**

Artemis whacked Apollo on his head before he could come up with some flirtatious haiku.

“If only I could have found you when you were younger…” She said remorsefully.

“You are a smart woman.” Athena complimented before turning to glare and yell at Poseidon. “You should have stayed away from her!”

“Mom,” Percy called out. “Did dad tell you all the stuff?”

“Some things he told me and others I figured out on my own.” Sally answered.

Needless to say, everyone in the room was very impressed.

**The pine tree was still way too far –a hundred metres uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car … why he bothered, since we were only about fifteen metres away.**

**‘Food?’ Grover moaned.**

**‘Shhh,’ I told him. ‘Mom, what’s he doing? Doesn’t he see us?’**

**‘His sight and hearing are terrible … he’ll figure out where we are soon enough.’**

Everyone in the room, once again, threw Sally an impressed look as Percy and Poseidon beamed.

Zeus side-eyed his brother’s lover. _‘How the Hera-er… Hades did he get so lucky?’_

 _‘It’s rare to find mortals like her. Poseidon was certainly very lucky.’_ Hades thought.

 _‘If only Uncle Poseidon wasn’t in the room, I could flirt with her!’_ Apollo pouted. _‘Who cares? I can flirt with her even now!’_

Artemis and Hermes following their brother’s train of thought whacked him on the head. Though, Hermes did want to agree with him.

“Don’t even think of it.” Artemis warned in a dark voice.

Who the warning was directed toward, Hermes and Apollo didn’t know, but they both shivered at the threat.

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage … The gas tank exploded.**

**_Not a scratch,_ ** **I remembered Gabe saying.**

“Oops!” A dozen of people in the room exclaimed.

Reyna rolled her eyes.

**Oops.**

Laughter filled the room, momentarily lifting the tension.

**‘Percy,’ my mom said … once he’s charging. Do you understand?’**

“How come you didn’t inherit any of your mother’s brains?” Thalia teased her cousin.

“Hey!” He complained.

**‘How do you know all this?’**

**‘I’ve been worried … I was selfish, keeping you near me.’**

“No, you weren’t.” Percy huffed.

Sally looked at her son. “You don’t-”

“Of course I don’t blame you!” He answered before she could even finish the question. “You were just worried that I wouldn’t want to come back once I go to the camp.”

“But because of that, you had to put up with Gabe and-”

“It’s not your fault, mom. Gabe was a jerk but you had a good reason to keep him around. It was to protect me, wasn’t it?”

“I should have found a better way.”

“You did more than enough.”

“He’s right, Sally.” Poseidon spoke up.

Percy and the rest of the demigods and gods nodded in agreement.

A pressure lifted from Sally’s chest as the guilt and remorse eating her up waned.

“Thank you.” She said sincerely.

**‘Keeping me near you? But –’**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He’d smelled us.**

**The pine tree … Grover wasn’t getting any lighter.**

“How inconsiderate of him.” Thalia rolled her eyes.

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he’d be on top of us.**

**My mother must’ve been exhausted … Remember what I said.’**

**I didn’t want to split up … He reeked like rotten meat.**

Most people in the room gagged. Aphrodite turned a sickly shade of green.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

Sally tensed.

 **The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt … I jumped to the side**.

Percy’s mom sigh in relief.

“I’m glad I’m not reading this chapter.” She muttered.

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train … towards my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

Hades frowned. As did all the other gods and goddesses.

“Aren’t monsters supposed to ignore mortals?” Frank asked.

“They are.” Nico confirmed.

 _‘What’s going on here?’_ Ruler of Underworld thought.

**We’d reached the crest of the hill … glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away.**

Sally’s heart sank.

**We’d never make it.**

Reyna looked up from her book to glare at Percy. “Be more optimistic!”

“I was being realistic!”

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground … trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

“It won’t actually attack her, right?” Poseidon asked.

**‘Run, Percy!’ she told me. ‘I can’t go any further. Run!’**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her.**

Sally’s eyes widened.

“What? Why?” God of the ocean panicked. “Why did it go after Sally? She’s a mortal!”

**She tried to sidestep … she struggled, kicking and pummelling the air.**

“But monsters don’t attack mortals!”

“Unless they are under special orders.” Nico commented casually.

“What?” Poseidon’s attention snapped toward his nephew. “You mean someone ordered the Minotaur to go after Sally?”

“Yes.”

Poseidon turned toward Hades with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

“I haven’t done it yet.” Hades sigh.

**‘Mom!’**

**She caught my eyes … as if she were a holographic projection.**

**A blinding flash, and she was simply… gone.**

Sally gasped, staring at the book in disbelief.

“Mom,” Percy called out. “Don’t worry. You aren’t dead. You don’t die.”

She turned towards him, “But I just did…”

“No! No, you didn’t. Uncle Hades saved you at the last minute. That’s why you disappeared in the golden light.”

“But if Lord Hades saved me then who ordered the Minotaur to go after me in the first place?”

Percy winced.

Annabeth took over for her boyfriend. “Lord Hades did. Saying he saved you is actually a bit of a stretch. It was more like he captured you.”

“Captured me?”

Annabeth nodded as her eyes darkened. “He wanted to use you as a bargaining chip. But Percy’s right, you don’t die.”

“Bargaining chip for what exactly?” Sally’s voice suddenly had a sharp edge to it, making her sound almost angry.

“It’s the same reason Lord Hades sent the Minotaur after Percy. Other than the oath.”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly a good reason but it was important.” Percy mumbled.

“I see.” Sally continued in the same tone.

Turning towards Hades, she said. “It better be a good reason because I do not appreciate being used as a bargaining chip.”

To say everyone was surprised would be an understatement.

“It hasn’t happened yet.” Hades grumbled. “And besides if I hadn’t taken you away when I did, the Minotaur certainly would have killed you.”

Sally pursed her lips. “Yes, I would thank you for that if I didn’t know you did it only to use me as leverage.”

Demigods and a few gods were openly looking at her with respect. Every single goddess was smiling.

Before Hades could reply she turned toward Zeus. “I’ll take it you won’t be sending any monster after my son from this timeline anymore?”

Zeus’s eye twitched. _‘To be ordered around by a mortal…’_ “Foolish mortal. You understand nothing. Your son is a danger to us all. The prophecy-”

“Was fulfilled and Olympus survived just fine if these demigods sitting here are anything to go by. And if I’m not mistaken, we’re reading about my son’s quest and how he saves you all…” Sally started up at him, daring anyone to object.

If people were looking at her with admiration before, they were now positively beaming with awe.

After her guilt was dealt with, the most primary emotions left were worry and anger. Her son had tried to assure her repeatedly, but she knew worrying was something she was never going to stop doing. And that left anger. Anger at the gods who sent monsters to kill her precious little son. At the gods who used her as a bargaining chip.

She wasn’t nearly as angry at gods for trying to kill her as she ought to be. That void was filled with acceptance. Perhaps because it hadn’t happened to her yet.

“My mom is awesome, isn’t she?” Percy whispers loudly.

“We all know she is.” Thalia agreed. _‘I can also see where that sass come from.’_

“Yup.” And “Yes, she is.” Echoed all around the room.

Octavian just squeaked in terror.

All the gods were staring at Sally and wondering _‘HOW IN TARTARUS DID POSEIDON GET SO LUCKY?’_

Goddesses were beaming with pride. Artemis once more regretfully wished for her to have found Sally earlier before joining Hera and Athena in glaring at Poseidon. Aphrodite, Demeter, and Hestia were mostly happy that Zeus and Hades were put in their places (especially Zeus) and by a mortal woman no less.

 _‘Don’t look down on us just because we’re women.’_ Reyna thought as she continued reading.

**‘No!’**

**Anger replaced my fear … energy I’d got when Mrs Dodds grew talons.**

“Adrenalin.” Annabeth supplied.

**The bull-man bore down on Grover … about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn’t allow that.**

Almost everyone smiled at the loyalty displayed.

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

Rachel groaned. “You did not.”

“What, RED?” Percy asked innocently. “My rain jacket was red, it always works for bulls.”

“Horrible pun.” Rachel brandished her weapon as glared at the demigod.

“Sorry! Sorry! Just don’t hit me with _that_.”

**‘HEY!’ I screamed, waving the jacket ... ‘Hey, stupid! Ground beef!’**

Stoll brothers sigh.

“You need to work on your insults, Percy.” Travis chided.

**‘Raaaarrrrr!’ The monster turned … shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea – a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

“Why am I not surprised?” Annabeth sigh.

“Not everyone is as smart as you, Wise Girl.” Percy grinned cheekily. “We have to make do with what we have.”

**I put my back to the big pine tree and … jump out of the way at the last moment.**

“Hey!” Thalia exclaimed. “He’d run straight into me! Thanks!”

“I’m still confused about the whole you being tree thing.” Jason said.

“It comes up in the book.” Percy replied.

**But it didn’t happen like that.**

“Of course not.”

**The bull-man charged too fast … whichever way I tried to dodge.**

Sally tensed again.

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn’t jump sideways … turning in mid-air and landing on his neck.**

Many jaws dropped open.

“How did you do that?” Leo asked.

“’cause it was raining, genius.” The unexpected voice of Octavian called out.

Realizing what he just did, he shut his mouth shut and covered it with his hands.

Reyna turned towards him thoughtfully.

“Did he seriously just say something sensible again?” Hazel asked with wide eyes.

“CHECK IF THE SKY’S STILL BLUE!” Stolls yelled and rushed towards the massive throne room doors.

“Octavian of the First Cohort.” Reyna’s calm but commanding voice bought all the attention to her. “You are hereby dismissed as the Augur of Camp Jupiter and Centurion of First Cohort. You will continue to serve the Twelfth Legion Fulminata as a legionnaire.”

Octavian’s jaw dropped open. “You can’t do that!”

“I don’t see a reason why I can’t. I am the praetor and it is my job to do what is best for the Legion.”

“You can’t make arbitrary decisions like that! You have to call a Senate meeting!”

“Ah, about that! No, I don’t. We here have all our praetors present here…” She waved her hand toward Percy, Jason, and Frank. “You can ask them yourself if they wish to veto my decision.”

“Nope, I approve!” Percy grinned.

“So do I.” Frank agreed.

“You’re dismissed, Octavian.” Jason fist-bumped with Reyna.

“No, you still have to call a Senate meeting for the motion to pass! And on what charges am I being demoted?” Octavian tried desperately.

“Praetors are Legion’s leaders.” Reyna continued in the same calm and now somewhat amused voice. “You see, Octavian, we do not wield all that power just to call Senate meetings for every decision. Just like on a battlefield, we have complete control and it’s a legionnaire’s duty to follow their praetors every command without hesitation.”

“But this isn’t a battlefield.” The blond legacy looked close to crying.

“No.” Reyna accepted. “But this can be seen as a quest, a quest from Fates themselves.”

Octavian opened his mouth and closed it. “But-but the camp still needs an augur! And the First Cohort needs a Centurion!”

“Not quite. Till First Cohort elects a new Centurion, Michael Kahale can handle things. And for the augur, we are now on good terms with Greeks and they have their oracle, they will surely warn us if something was coming.”

“Yes, they will.” Rachel agreed.

Reyna nodded in thanks towards the red-haired girl before turning back towards the now sobbing scrawny blond. “Any further questions?”

“What charges?” He croaked. “What charges am I being dismissed on?”

"Charges?" Reyna's voice turned hard. "How about purposefully attacking and killing one of your fellow Legionnaires?" _Gwendolyn_ "Or ignoring my direct orders not to engage in any conflict with Greeks? You self assumed the title of Pontifex Maximus and tried to kill someone who was trying to defeat our common enemy. But l can ignore the last one. It hasn't happened yet and I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. But what about you blackmailing legionnaires into supporting you for the position of praetor? That's a misuse of your position. And don't deny any of that, we have proof."

Octavian had nothing to say to that.

He noisily burst into tears of shame and acceptance as the Stoll brothers walk back in

“We checked the sky.” Connor said sounding almost disappointed.

“It’s still blue.” Travis shared their observations.

They looked at the brawling blond and asked, “Why is _he_ crying?”

“He got demoted.” answered Annabeth.

“It was brutal.” Nico added.

Hazel nodded in agreement. “To Romans, being demoted like that- being demoted at all- is the worst thing that can happen to them. Though, he deserved it.”

“Brutal, indeed.” Hades muttered under his breath.

Gods almost felt sorry for the blond. Almost.

“Now then, let’s continue reading.” Said Reyna, finding the sentence where she left off as if she did not just give one of the harshest punishment you could possibly give to a Roman.

She mentally patted herself on the back. It was the first time she had beat Octavian at wordplay.

**How did I do that? … nearly knocked my teeth out.**

“Thanks a lot!” said Thalia cheerfully, her tone and the look in her eyes not matching up.

**The bull-man staggered around … The rain was in my eyes.**

Octavian was too miserable to even feel the satisfaction of being right.

**The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

The sick shade of green was back on Aphrodite’s face.

**The monster shook himself … just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat**

Thalia did not sound pleased at the suggestion.

**but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning … if I opened my mouth I’d bite my own tongue off.**

“Don’t yell.” Sally clutched Percy’s hand again.

**‘Food!’ Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled towards him … I pulled backwards with all my might.**

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then** **–** **snap!**

For the millionth time that day, jaws dropped open.

“That brat couldn’t have…” Ares looked at the book in disbelief.

“Bro, did you just break the Minotaur’s horn?” asked Jason.

“Please,” Rachel sigh. “Stop with all the questions.”

“Yes, I did, bro.” Percy bro-fist bumped with Jason.

Piper and Annabeth shot Reyna a panicked look. _‘Read! Before they can get started again!’_

Reyna complied.

**The bull-man screamed … horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling.**

“Rain.” said Annabeth. “Demigod reflexes are good but they aren’t that good.”

“Does that mean he would have died if it wasn’t raining?” asked Thalia.

Annabeth shrugged.

Octavian gave a squeak that could have meant _‘I told you so’_ or _‘Please promote me again’_.

Reyna shot him a glare. The message came through clearly- _Shut up or die_.

Former augur of Camp Jupiter very barely suppressed a terrified shriek.

**As the monster barrelled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

**The bull-man roared in agony … the same way Mrs Dodds had burst apart.**

Sally relaxed and gave a proud smile to her son.

“I can’t believe you just defeated the Minotaur without any training!” Hermes exclaimed. “That was awesome!”

“I’m proud of you, son!” Poseidon beamed.

“All brawls and no brains.” Athena crossed her arm, refusing to acknowledge a son of Poseidon. Zeus followed her suit.

Ares was still staring at the book in disbelief.

Compliments kept rolling in until Reyna cleared her throat deliberately and glared at everyone. “The chapter isn’t over yet.”

Without waiting for anyone’s reply she continued reading.

**The monster was gone.**

**The rain had stopped.**

“Figures.”

**The storm still rumbled … My head felt like it was splitting open.**

“You did hit your head on that rock.” Apollo pointed out.

**I was weak and scared and trembling with grief … I held on to Grover – I wasn’t going to let him go.**

“You’re a good friend, Percy.” Sally said. “I’m proud of you!”

Percy blushed and muttered thanks.

“We all are very lucky to have you as our friend, Percy.” Hazel smiled.

Cheers of agreement rose up.

**The last thing I remember is … a pretty girl, her blonde hair curled like a princess.**

Aphrodite squealed. “Who is it?”

Annabeth, realizing who her boyfriend was talking about, tried to keep her blush under control. She leaned over and quickly pecked a kiss on her boyfriend’s cheek.

“Does that mean I won’t be judo flipped?”

“Yes, you passed.”

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, ‘He’s the one. He must be.’**

Aphrodite suddenly narrowed her eyes. “She better not get in the way of Percabeth.”

Both Percy and Annabeth groaned.

**‘Silence, Annabeth,’ the man said. ‘He’s still conscious. Bring him inside.’**

Ringing silence reigned the room before demigods burst into laughter. Aphrodite started squealing and Athena was very casually and very inconspicuous twirling her spear.

The couple in question blushed and tried to avoid their friends' teasing looks.

“In my defense,” Percy muttered. “I probably had a concussion and Annabeth is very pretty.” 

“So you had a crush on her the first time you saw her.” Thalia grinned and turned her attention to the daughter of Athena. “And what’s your excuse, Annie? ‘He’s the one. He must me.’ Knew he was gonna be your boyfriend the first time you laid your eyes on him?”

“I didn’t mean it that way, Thalia!” Annabeth groaned.

“Suuure.”

“I was referring to the prophecy.”

“Sure you were.” Thalia said breezily, clearly not believing her for a second.

“Love at first sight.” Aphrodite sighs dreamily.

Reyna rolled her eyes. “That’s the chapter. Who’s reading next?”

“Before we start.” Percy interrupted. “When are going to take the lunch break?”

“Food. Is that all what boys ever think about?” Thalia rolled her eyes.

“Hey!” Jason complained. “I starting to feel hungry too.”

All the males in the room agreed to the sentiment.

“We can take the lunch break after reading another chapter.” Hestia suggested.

“Sounds good!” Leo grinned.

“Fine.” Zeus grumbled.

“In that case, I’ll read the next chapter!” Apollo offered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed that!  
> On a scale of 1 to 10, how funny was the chapter?
> 
> Please leave a comment. They never fail to make my day better! 
> 
> Important: I won't be able to update until the end of April. School and life aren't cooperating. Sorry!
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Edit [15/02/20]: Wow, I can't believe I'm doing this the same day I uploaded it. So there all lots of complaints about Percy being called dumb and Annabeth being OOC. There is a reason for it. I was going to include that in a scene in the next chapter but I guess I'll just say it here too.  
> Everybody already knows Percy is smart. They just like teasing him. And now they are reading about his quests in his thoughts. They're just milking it till the irrefutable fact that Percy is actually smart is put in front of them. Annabeth especially. But I am sorry if I went too far or made them too mean. I'll edit the chapter if the complaints continue.  
> Please reread the Octavian demoting scene, I've edited it. There are plenty of reasons Octavian was demoted.


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